MLMO

I'm sick ... still. I guess it's the "common cold" or whatever, but I've had it since Wednesday when all that crazy weather rolled into town. It's really no big deal, but when I had to work today as the "cold" traveled from my throat to my head as I was greeting 100+ people and acting all chipper and fired up for a work seminar, it was quite annoying. Thankfully, I work for a nutritionally based chiropractor, who was putting on the seminar, and he graciously adjusted my neck at the seminar. Now the mucus finally wants to come out of my nose, freeing up my brain so that I can actually comprehend Latin. Well as much as possible, anyway.

The seminar, as I'm calling it, really wasn't a seminar so much as the "Maximized Living Makeover" done twice a year through my chiropractor and the several others across the US that are a part of the same network/company/thing. It was quite an awesome morning. Along with the Makeover seminar goes a book, which holds the "30-day Makeover challenge" specifically for you and your life/body/thing. It really is amazing and I know several people whose lives have changed because of their decision to do the 30 days.

Anyway, check out the link and tell me what you think. I'm going to start Monday and if you guys do it too then we can hold each other accountable. Here is where you can pick the challenge you want to do.

I'll be posting when I can, even if it's only to update my progress, and tell you guys how I'm doing, especially if you're doing it too!

The Comedy Hour

Living in Texas is quite comical in the winter. Yesterday, the temperatures were below freezing and there was slight drizzle all day. Then when evening came, the rain began to really freeze, making the roads yucky. Well first off, I went to work about 1:30 and the roads were hardly wet. Way to go News Guy. But when I left he was right on track because my car was completely frozen over. So anyway, classes were cancelled all day yesterday, but I didn't have class anyway.

So over last night, the rain was supposed to get heavier and the temperature was supposed to drop even more. Well, that happened and classes were cancelled all day today, which was really awesome because I did have class. So anyway, the moral of this story is that Texans tend to freak out when "freezing rain" is even mentioned. Almost everyone cancelled their chiropractic appointment at the office yesterday and said they would call us this morning to say if they were coming in today. Well, I haven't gone to work yet, but I can guarantee you that hardly anyone will be there today because of the "black ice". Yes, I'll admit, that is rather dangerous. But when my sister lives in Alaska and it is constantly around -40 degrees there with snow and ice and rain, well, I've grown rather accustomed to not freaking out when mere "freezing rain" threatens our Texas.

Like I said, quite comical.

Today was super good. Well, except for trying not to freak out in Latin. It turned out all right though because I definitely wasn't the only one that had trouble with the translation. We start learning Dreamweaver in my computer class on Wednesday. I hope it's as awesome as I'm thinking it will be.

Work is going really well. I'm catching on pretty quickly, now I just have to learn all of the patients' names. Now that is going to be crazy. I'll get it though ... eventually.

I think I'm going to work on The Great Funnel for a little while. I finally have a little free time to do so. Or I'll just sleep...

*takes a deep breath*

I only have a few minutes to do this until I have to be on my way to a "study session." Oh how I did not miss those. Although, the girl I study with is pretty nifty so it's never really "studying" so much as it is laughing our asses off while trying to write a decent paper. In today's case, it will be watching Underworld and Underworld: Evolution while reading and producing a reading log for said reading. We are catching up on the movies so that we can - hopefully - see the new one sometime this week or next weekend. It's going to be awesome. Oh I failed to mention we'll be doing all of this as her two-year-old son runs screaming around the house. Hah, no he usually doesn't scream ... usually. He's actually pretty funny. When we go shopping, he'll scream my name every time I leave his sight, "Kori! Kori! Where'd Kori go!" It's quite hilarious.

Here's a weekend recap for you:
Friday - Left campus around 1pm, went to Half Price Books to look for a textbook that they didn't have and also wrestled with myself more than I should have about expanding my Agatha Christie collection (needless to say, I did not), got home around 2pm, ate, then the homework began and did not end until 9pm when I sat down to watch Numbers because my brain was completely fried. Now, about that text book I didn't find. It wasn't a "required" textbook for the class because it's available on the Uni's Net Library, although only two people can access it at a time. Good news though. When I got on the Net Library to do my required reading from the textbook, it totally let me copy and paste it into Word. So now I don't even have to buy the book. I can just get it for free! Man, I'm awesome.
Saturday - Woke up about 9:15am, Dad made me pancakes with shaved chocolate mixed in (yum), then the homework began once again and did not end until about 9pm. I did find, however, that to keep my brain from turning into jelly, all I have to do is watch Harry Potter as I do my homework. So I guess you could say that HP is kind of like my sanity. It's quite weird, actually. Oh well, it works.

Super Sad Face

Just to let you guys know ... I won't be posting as much as usual. I'm not sure how much I will be on, so I really can't say. But I have reasons!

1) Classes started this week and I am already overloaded with homework.
2) I got a job at my chiropractor working the front desk. That takes up M-Th evenings.
3) I'm still trying to edit Beautiful Disruption, but that isn't really happening. And the contest is in 10 days ... yikes!
4) Lots of homework ... already.
5) I'm still trying to have a social life.
6) Oh ... did I mention homework? Holy crap.

*rolls eyes and sighs*

*sigh*

School started today and what a day it was. Let me tell you about it.
Computers and Writing 8:00-8:50am: I have a feeling that this is going to be my favorite class this semester. We have to read and write basic HTML, create a website, write in a blog, use a wiki, etc. Doesn't that sound awesome! Btw, the professor sounds really cool. I love this whole implementing technology into college courses. So many more professors need to do that. Classes are so bland these days, which is why no one comes.
History of American Literature 9:00-9:50am: Professor is really super nice and easy going. He's never taught this course before, so his expectations of the class is to read as much as we can (from the assigned text, unfortunately). We have one term paper over a novel we get to pick from a list; 2,500 words, so easy! Then we keep a reading log of everything read. Could it get any easier?
Structures of Modern English 10:00-10:50am: This might be one of two difficult classes. Well, maybe not difficult, but definitely time consuming. This is the closest that English gets to Math, which I don't mind. Pretty much, we diagram sentences... Professor seems pretty nice. Her wicked German accent makes her fierce though.
Intensive Latin 3&4 11:00am-1:00pm: Not hard. The intensive word makes it sound difficult, but that only means we do levels 3&4 in one semester instead of two. That's fine with me though because I'm finished with it after this semester. It's not really all that rushed either. You would think that it would be faster, but it's not. If it were only one level per semester, I would be so bored. It does keep you on your toes though and it's definitely time consuming. Professor is awesome, but I had him last semester too. He's super fun and likes to make Latin interesting by substituting 'jerk' for the people in the sentence who are being stupid.

I got this from Murderati. Technically, they didn't send it to me. I'm just kind of ... stealing it.

16 Random Things About Me:

(1) I wear a lot of black. No not Gothic style. But I do this because I like black. It's easy for me to wear, I feel comfortable, and I can wear bright colored converse to top it off.

(2) I hate my university. The classes have in no way benefited my writing simply because the only writing assignments I am ever required to do are so simple: read the text and summarize or read the text and apply it to another piece of literature. Can you say boring? That's why I'm looking forward to my Computers and Writing course this semester because it isn't all about summarizing meaningless stuff no one has ever heard of.

(3) My first two years of college, I was an Aerospace Engineering major and maintained a 3.8 GPA. I wanted to be a rocket scientist. I still do too, but I got really bored.

(4) I read more books from the kid and teen section rather than the adult. The kid section is my favorite though: Harry Potter, Leven Thumps...
Kid books aren't about love. They're about friendship and I like that.

(5) My favorite television show is Lost, but I secretly watch Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill too. Don't tell anyone.

(6) I haven't had a boyfriend in almost two years, simply because I'm too picky. No one ever meets my standards or my family's.

(7) I secretly want to drop out of school and become a spy.

(8) I'd join the military if I didn't have to go to war.

(9) I don't like crowds of people I don't know. It terrifies me.

(10) I'm probably the most organized person you have ever met. If I could live off being a personal organizer, I would because that's how much it thrills me.

(11) I don't like forums, but I do like meeting people online who are writers, like me. It makes me feel wanted and accepted. None of my family really understands what I write about. They all think I'm secretly deranged.

(12) When I was in high school, my mom threw away all of my books because she didn't like the content: vampires, etc. I cried.

(13) I treat my cat as if she's my child, which is really awesome by the way. She's spoiled.

(14) Right now, I can't get past a certain point in "Stone of Tears" by Terry Goodkind because it's too sad. I don't know if I'll ever finish that book and it's only number two of like twelve.

(15) I don't want to go to grad school.

(16) I think I want to be a literary agent.

Wow, that was amazingly difficult.

The Great Funnel Excerpt

Okay, so yesterday was more like a dud. Nothing happened. Well, to me, anyway. So school starts tomorrow, which also means I get to start going to the gym again (our gym, the MAC, is free if you're currently enrolled in classes). But that also means tons of Latin homework! Eesh. It's not hard, but man does it take some serious concentration.

I really should have worked all day on editing Beautiful Disruption, but I didn't. I did for a few hours, but then I felt like writing, so I did ... duh. The Great Funnel is coming along slowly but surely. I'm actually going to post an excerpt I've written recently. I'm pretty sure I haven't posted it before. If I have, I apologize. This is one of my favorite scenes so far. It's quite comical, I think.

This is the beginning of Chapter 2, the day after Hannah, the dead girl, appears in Matt's room.

-----------

I woke to my alarm clock buzzing too loudly and I hastily reached over the head of my bed to disable it. I sat up in bed and looked around my room, not remembering that I had fallen asleep.

Hannah wasn’t anywhere to be seen, but the thought that maybe it had all been a dream didn’t even tempt me. I knew Hannah hadn’t been a dream, just as I knew my connection with the Underworld wasn’t just a feeling. It was very prominent and real, and not just in my mind.

Further back in my mind I could see it, the river Hannah described yesterday, and the boatman she had spoken to. I could see it all clear as day, but I could also hear the screams and laments from the Vestibule as well, the ones from where she entered into the Underworld. They were terrible and not something easily forgotten, but they were only the beginning of The Great Funnel … of Hell.

But how did I remember these things? How did I even know these things existed? Technically I didn’t, according to reality, but for some reason I didn’t think I belonged in this reality anyway. On the contrary, I knew I belonged in the Underworld, but why was I here instead of there?

I abandoned the stirring, melting feeling inside of me and got up to take a shower as I remembered that today was Monday and I had school. The white tiled floor was cold on my bare feet, so I hastily stepped onto the dark green rug just outside the shower. I turned on the shower water, threw all of my clothes into the dirty hamper, and then brushed my teeth over the pearl counter and sink as I waited for the water to warm up.

“Hey,” said a voice to my left.

I immediately jumped in shock and I swallowed some toothpaste in the process. Then my eyes went wide as I realized Hannah was standing next to me, leaning on the sink’s counter, and I was completely naked.

Toothbrush still in my mouth and toothpaste running down my chin, my hands immediately went between my legs to cover everything from Hannah’s eyes.

She laughed. “Don’t be such a prude. Trust me, you’re not the only guy I’ve seen naked.”

“What are you doing in here?” I asked, but my question was garbled by the toothbrush and white foam in my mouth.

“I knew you would be up by now and thought I would say good morning. After all, you are my only friend now,” She said.

“Can you, like, disappear for a minute or two while I get in the shower?” I asked hastily as even more toothpaste ran down my chin.

She rolled her eyes. “Sure thing.” And then she was gone.

I looked around the bathroom nervously, but she really was gone. Instead of completing the teeth brushing process, I automatically spit into the sink and rinsed my mouth. Then I got into the shower that was now steaming – I turned the Hot knob a little to the left.

“So what are we doing today?” Hannah asked from outside the shower.

I peaked around the white shower curtain and saw her sitting on the bathroom counter with her feet dangling over the front. “You said you knew I would be up. How did you know that? Do you have psychic abilities now too?”

“Yes, I know your every move because I can read your mind. Does that freak you out?” She said darkly.

I retracted my head back under the water and gulped quietly. “Um, no.”

She laughed. “I saw you set your alarm last night.”

I laughed a little nervous laugh. “Oh, well that makes more sense.” I shampooed my hair.

“You didn’t answer my question,” She said.

I racked my brain for the question I was supposed to be answering and eventually remembered. “Oh, uh, I have school.”

“Can I go with you?” She asked.

I heard her finger rubbing on the foggy mirror behind her.

“I don’t think my teachers would really appreciate you sitting in on all of my classes,” I said as I washed my body, including my face, as I let the shampoo soak into my scalp.

“They can’t see me, remember?” She said and then started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I stuck my head around the shower curtain again. On the mirror behind her I saw a terrified face drawn out of the perspiration.

“It’s you,” she laughed again, “when I surprised you earlier.” The face had huge eyes and a gaping mouth.

Suddenly I became very embarrassed for some reason and hid back in the shower, but I had to rinse off anyway. At least, that’s what I told myself.

“Well, I think it’s funny,” She said.

I turned off the water and stood there for a second, freezing. “Uh, can you-“ A towel landed on my head. “Okay, that works too. Thanks.” I dried myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist before I stepped out of the tub-shower.

:/

Holy crap ...

Lack

So now I remember why I didn't like Wuthering Heights ... because Catherine married Linwood and not Heathcliff! Gee, what a bitch. I'm just saying, that's stupid.

I've been told lately by several people that the standard spacing after a period is one now. I am trying to get in the zone here with this whole one space thing, but it's pretty hard. I literally have to think super hard whenever I end a sentence. I was brought up with two spaces after a period, so changing 21 years of habit is difficult.

Ugh, really, I have nothing to talk about. I really should be reading a friend's ABNA, so I'm out.

Night everyone!

Crap Out = SUCKS

Ooooh man. I am tiired. I hardly ever say that, so you know when it's true. I could NOT sleep last night and didn't end up falling asleep until about 5am this morning, then I had to get up at 9am for a seminar and then I went to Fry's!!! Best store ever! I got a cooling pad for my best friend, Mr. HP Notebook Pavilion zd8000, a new junk drive (great deal too), and a reading light! All super awesome stuff. Now I just need an awesome web cam to replace my crap out. I mean really, why do companies even sell crappy products! They should be sued.

I'm going to get back to my reading assignment ... well, kind of.

Nothing more to say today, except that I have a tower of books on my armour that I desperately need to read before school starts. So let's see, that's 14 books in 3 days ... yeah, I'll get right on that.

Last BD Excerpt

Okay dudes, here it is, the last excerpt I'm going to post before ABNA. I finished re-writing Beautiful Disruption today and now I am going to take a few days break while I read a friend's ABNA and while he reads mine. Then I will plunge into editing BD for the millionth time before the contest actually begins. I would write more but my cat has decided to stretch out on top of my keyboard, obstructing my typing space with her feet.

Go over to Sarah's blog and read her excerpt from Empyrean. It's a highly entertaining story and I'm hoping she'll enter it into ABNA.

Anyway, here is the excerpt and I think this is a fun scene. Enjoy!

---------------

After a few minutes, a group of guys walked out of the club to grab a smoke. Andria poised her stance flirtatiously and stared at one guy in particular. He caught her gaze in the midst of lighting his cigarette and stopped dead. His eyes appraised her short jean skirt and silky tank top, which clung to her body perfectly.

She beckoned him over with her poise and one motion of a finger. That was all it took.

He took the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it on the ground, jamming the lighter in his buddy’s chest. His friends watched him walk toward her and then they began to hoot and holler.

“Wanna take a walk?” Andria asked him.

“Yes,” he responded.

She took his hand in hers, leading him towards the parking lot.

“Which car is yours?” She asked, giving him a mischievous smile.

All he could do was point.

She made her way to where he pointed, still dragging him along. Upon making it to the car, she leaned against the passenger door and pulled him close to her, her eyes locking into his.

“I’m sorry to steal you away from your friends, but you looked like you could use a little excitement.” She said to make sure her hold on his mind was strong.

“I don’t mind. I’d like some excitement.” He said in reply, obviously entranced.

She leaned in toward the guy and around the side of his face. She breathed lightly, yet seductively, in his ear. It worked.

He grabbed her waist and pulled her even tighter to his body. “The backseat is big enough,” he said, obviously from experience.

“Okay.” She said, that being her initial plan, yet for different reasons.

He opened the car and was in the backseat before she could even turn around. She crawled in after him, taking her delicate time to keep his mind focused. She closed the door behind her and sat next to him, her body angled toward his.

Abruptly, he leaned in to kiss her, but she caught his face. Instead, she smiled at him and ducked her head once more to blow in his right ear, completely scattering any thoughts of reality. Then she slowly moved her lips down his jaw line and to his throat.

His pulse was escalating in anticipation and so was hers.

She cradled the other side of his face with her right hand and once more lightly skimmed the side of his neck with her lips.

The anticipation wearing off, her fangs extended and she easily bit into the nearly exposed vein in his neck and at once felt the intense aroma of human blood flowing over every inch of her body.

He moaned in pleasure, his body completely at her will. His blood flowed in her mouth like life water, fulfilling her need and desire. She took her time in the moment, knowing his friends weren’t expecting him back any time soon, if at all. But she knew he had to go back, eventually. She wasn’t a murderer, but she had needs to fulfill. Then again, this wasn’t a full meal, just a perk to an experiment.

Minutes passed and she was beginning to feel the satisfaction, her pulse slowing. She lifted her head away from the side of his neck and licked the puncture closed. He moaned in delight once more.

Sliding her tongue across her lower lip, she did away with any leftovers and her horror-movie fangs. He looked at her with an endorphin-induced smile. She smiled back, knowing he was utterly seduced.Exiting the car together, they went their separate ways.

Losing the Battle

No new excerpt today. I apologize. I'm really trying to get this re-write finished, but I really have this job dilemma on my mind. It's quite ridiculous actually. I mean really, if I don't figure out what the hell I need to do to get into publishing, then I'm going to end up working at the local library. That would be cool and all, but I'll have a B.A. for goodness sake! I really need to move out ... I'm losing it. And it doesn't help when everyone thinks I'm twelve. Dude, really, I'm not kidding. Guys don't even look at me because they think I'm so young, it's ridiculous. I tell people I'm in college and this is always the conversation.

People: "Oh really? How old are you?"
Me: "Yeah, I'm about to graduate and I just finished writing two novels. I'm trying to get published."
People: "Oh that's so great for you. Are you a genius or are you really about to turn 21?"
Me: AHHHH!

They always think I'm joshing. Sucks.

Dude ... Really

Interesting day today, although not really. All I did was work on my re-write and get adjusted at the good ol' chiropractor. This re-write is taking everything I have. I haven't been able to work on The Great Funnel at all.

So here is my predicament at the present time. I'm trying to figure out what job field I am going to pursue next year when I graduate. Believe me, I really need a job upon graduation because I HAVE, keyword, HAVE to move out of my parents' house. It's utterly ridiculous that I am still living here. Well, kind of ridiculous. They don't want me to work during school, which is awesome because I can write a lot, but not awesome because I'm stuck living here. Oh well. But really, I need to find a potential job. My B.A. will be in English. I'm looking into being a literary agent, although not right off of course. Or maybe in the publishing area? Dude, I really don't know. Anything to do with the book publishing process. Of course I wish I could live off my writing, but that's not going to happen unless I can convince people I'm really J.K. Rowling. No, that probably won't work. Any ideas?

Okay children! (Don't worry, I call everyone that, even my parents.) Here is the next excerpt from Beautiful Disruption, although not related to yesterday's. I was re-writing this scene just now because it's super fun. Apparently, A & E have made up and it's been about a month or so actually. Now, just so you aren't confused. At this point, he knows that she's a vamp. Hope you like it!

------------

Andria entered Evan's room, finding him sprawled across the bed playing video games.

“I guess you haven’t grown bored of your old interests.” She said, standing in the doorway.

“Hold on, I’m almost finished.” He said.

Andria thought about his response for a minute, wanting to wait as he said, but she remembered that before she had overheard Marcus and Josh, she had been dying to see Evan. Needing to see him really.

She walked towards him and sat down right in front of him, facing the television.

“Andria, I can’t see.” He said, moving to look around her.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” She moved in front of him again. “Is that better?”

“Not really, no.” He said, still intent on the game as he craned his neck to see around her. He was about to win, but he couldn’t see with her sitting in front of him.

“Okay, let me move over.” She said, again moving in front of him.

Finally he realized what she was doing and didn’t even bother to finish the game because he was going to lose anyway. He threw the controller on the floor and grabbed her around the waist. “Oh well, that games sucks anyway.”

She looked at the screen. “Only because you lost,” she said comically.

“I only lost because you were sitting in front of my face.” He retorted.

“Oh really, well I’m sorry. Maybe I will just leave then.” She said, standing up.

“Andria, don’t leave, I was only –“

She jumped on him, cutting off his sentence, and pinned him under her so he couldn’t move. “You were only …?”

“I was only … “ He started to say, but the closeness of her body was too much to ignore. He reached up and kissed her hard on the mouth.She lowered her body fully on top of his, feeling all of him under her, and making his mind do flips and jumps as it contemplated her closeness.

“This was your plan wasn’t it?” Evan said, barely able to pull away from her lips.

“I’m a sly little vampire, aren’t I?” She smiled at him mischievously.

He returned her smile, not able to remove the seductiveness from his face. One side of his mouth was higher than the other. “You sure are, and I love it.”

She laughed at him, sensing that she was overpowering his animal instincts, so he pulled her in for a deeper kiss, needing to taste all of her. She started to unbutton his shirt as his hands roamed up under hers. He sat up with her sitting on his lap as he took off his shirt completely, throwing it across the room. He pulled hers over her head also. Underneath she wore a silky red camisole that flowed over her skin and stomach like a seductive waterfall, causing him to want her even more. He didn’t hesitate, throwing her down on the bed before he covered her with his body.

She pulled his head toward hers, locking their lips together again and again. Then she wrapped her legs around his, securing their bodies together, as his hands felt her soft skin under shirt.

“Man, you guys are hot!”

Evan pulled away from Andria abruptly, propping himself up on both of his hands, and looked at the doorway, wondering who had interrupted such an amazing moment.

“Sarah!” Andria yelled, closing her eyes as her body went slack in embarrassment.

“You told us to come over. I was just following orders.” Sarah said, laughing. “Kelley, come here.” She motioned down the hall.

Great Day & BD Excerpt

Holy crap. Look who managed to hold onto her scholarship for another semester ... I DID! That's right folks, Kori here got half of her tuition paid for this semester, simply by an awesome GPA! And to think, starting in the Fall, my Uni is starting a program that is dishing out $40,000 to each student whose household makes less than $65,000 a year. Talk about free tuition for the entire four years of 15 hours/semester! Woohoo! Too bad I'm only going to get my last two semesters for free ... oh well, better than nothing!

If you cannot tell, I am in a very good mood. Don't ask me why because I really don't know! If I had my own place, I would probably be rocking out and dancing in my underwear. I'm just saying. Nothing grand happened today except an awesome dinner. I mean really, my mother comes up with the greatest stuff! Check this out: tonight we had ... well, I don't know if it actually has a name, but what you do is ... cut the middle out of a flour tortilla (or w/e tortilla preferred), stuff it into a muffin tin like a muffin wrapper, baking cup thing, then put them in the oven until crispy, take out, fill with refried beans, ground meet (we prefer turkey meat), cheese, lettuce, tomato, or whatever, hot sauce, jalapenos, whatev! Just fill it up and take a big bit! Yuuuum. I mean really, yuuuum. Try it. It's good. Make a video of it. It's super fun to eat. Always a surprise.

Here is an excerpt from Beautiful Disruption. This is a rather sad scene, but a good one. Here it is.

--------------------

Before they could make it to the door, Erin opened it for them. "Hey Evan," she said.

"Hi Erin, this is Andria." He said.

"Hi Andria, come on in." Erin smiled at her. "Everyone’s upstairs."

Her smile was shocking. Andria hadn’t even expected a hello, but she was getting a smile as well.
Maybe the party wouldn’t be so bad after all. She thought.

Too bad she couldn’t wear her earphones because then it would be perfect, but Evan was expecting her to be sociable and she didn’t want to disappoint him.

She followed Evan as he climbed the stairs with Erin behind them. Andria heard people yelling from a room down the hall and, of course, it was the room they entered. Her skin went prickly as she instinctively went into defensive mode.

The room was plain with white walls, but it contained several pieces of expensive looking artwork. There was a pool table in the center with barstools lining the wall on the other side and a television at the end furthest from the door where everyone was. They were yelling at Halo 3.

Josh saw them enter and he got up from watching the competition. "What’s up man?" Josh said, slapping Evan’s hand in some kind of cool guy handshake.

"Josh, this is Andria," Evan pointed to her.

"Hi Josh," she said bravely.

Evan was glad to see her making an effort, even if it was just for him.

"What’s up Andria," Josh smiled.

That was the second smile she had received within five minutes.

Maybe this really wasn’t going to be so bad. She thought.

Evan was glad that everyone was being nice to her so far. Andria was tense enough as it was, but Evan got the feeling that parties weren’t really her element. Although he did remember that she had said she always hung out with her friends on Friday nights, so maybe they had their own type of parties.

"Hey guys this is Andria!" Josh yelled at the video gamers.

"Hey."

“What’s up?"

“Yo," they all yelled in unison.

No one turned away from the television to smile at her but she would take the greetings. Maybe she had been worrying for no reason at all.

Evan wanted to see who was winning, so he took Andria’s soft hand in his and took her with him to stand against the wall near the television. Evan didn’t release her hand once they were over there, but she didn’t mind at all. They leaned against the wall shoulder-to-shoulder and hand-in-hand as Evan watched the characters on the television kill each other.

"So Andria, how come your friends didn’t come too?" Josh said.

"Oh, um, I didn’t know they were invited. But I’m just hanging out with Evan tonight." She said a little taken aback.

"That’s cool. You know, Evan’s a good guy." Josh said, slapping Evan’s shoulder.

Evan laughed; he couldn’t believe Josh was playing the wingman.

Andria smiled. "Yeah I know."

Josh continued to make small talk to Andria as Evan watched the constant action of the game. He thought Josh and Andria were getting along fine so he just let them talk, throwing in some comments here and there.

Not too much longer, other people began to show up. No one even bothered to knock or ring the doorbell, but just entered. Evan knew most everyone from either school or previous parties, but Andria didn’t know anyone; she had never even seen half of the people that were there. She should probably start paying more attention if she was going to fit in for Evan’s sake.

He tried to introduce some of the people to Andria, but they mostly glared at her in disbelief; disbelief that she was holding Evan’s hand and disbelief that she was there. Their glares made Evan uncomfortable.

Andria tried to cringe into the wall with no avail. She could take the looks of criticism because she was used to it, but the blood pounding in their veins was starting to get to her. More and more people began to arrive and she stood there with a plastered smile on her face. Evan talked to most of them, but ignored Marcy completely.

Evan thought Andria was having a good time. He tried to include her by pointing out people he knew and telling her their names in hopes that she would talk to them if she ever got the chance. As the party got into full swing, beer and liquor made its way around the room. Evan offered Andria something and she declined. He took a beer himself and drank it as he continued to talk to people.

He turned back to her after a few minutes of drinking his beer and socializing and asked, “Are you having fun?"

“Oh sure," she said as convincingly as she could. Evan heard it as enthusiasm. He thought she was having a good time because of her constant, plastered smile and he liked the way she stood close to him.

The pounding around her was becoming worse, her breathing got faster, and her mouth began to salivate. She didn’t think she would be able to take it much longer. Thoughts of luring one of the humans out of the house began to present themselves to her, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want Evan to catch her, so she did what she thought was best. “I’m going to get some air," she told Evan.

“Okay, I’ll come with you." He said. He followed behind her while drinking his beer. Before they reached the front door, he spotted a friend he hadn’t seen since the last gathering. “I’ll meet you out there. I’m just going to say hi to someone real fast." He said.

“Okay," she said. She rushed through the enormous crowd of people and out the door.

The party hadn’t fully escalated yet because it had yet to spill into the front lawn, which always seemed to happen, but there was still a mass of people inside.

Andria stood in the cooling breeze for a while, breathing deeply, trying to clear the scent and taste from her lungs and mouth. She was feeling better but it would take a little more time for the craving to subside completely. Even when it did, she wasn’t sure she wanted to rejoin the party.

Maybe I could talk Evan into leaving with another bike ride. She thought. After all, he is a sucker for my bike, like most guys.

Evan talked to his friend for a very short time and then went out to find Andria, but a few people stopped him to talk before he could get out the door. Before he knew it, he was feeling like his old self again. He was walking around the party talking to everyone like it was his house. The next thing he knew, Josh was handing him a new beer, his fourth.

“Follow me, there’s someone I want you to meet.” He said.

Evan followed him into the kitchen and Josh introduced him to a couple girls. He started talking with them and Josh about nothing important and they laughed at everything he said. Then another girl came over and joined the group. By this time, Josh had left. Although, Evan didn’t really care because the new girl was joining in the other girls’ laughter and it made him feel like the greatest guy at the party.

After ten minutes, Evan still hadn’t gone outside to meet Andria. She started to think he wasn’t coming at all, but then figured he just kept getting caught up with talking to people. That didn’t really bother her though because she didn’t really want to be inside anyway, but she did want him to be with her. Not in a selfish way of course, but because it hurt when he wasn’t around; she missed him. She felt such a connection with him and began doubting that he felt the same way.

After ten more minutes, she decided to go back inside to find him. As she entered the feeding chamber, she ground her teeth together and stormed through the crowd. She couldn’t see over the sea of heads to locate Evan and she couldn’t find his aura because of the jumble of auras in the room; they were difficult to tell apart.

She walked around people, knocking into people as people knocked her around. She overheard some conversations accidentally, but wished she hadn't. Two girls were trying to figure out why Andria was at the party and with Evan of all people, as if they couldn't believe it. One of the girls said that she was probably his new victim, whatever that meant. They finally decided that she shouldn't have come at all and that she should have just stuck with the other 'freaks'. Deep down Andria knew they were right. She didn’t belong there.

Finally, she found Evan after a few minutes, but what she found she didn’t like. Actually, she thought her heart had stopped beating because of what she saw. He was standing in the kitchen near a counter with three girls surrounding him. He was talking, a new beer in his hand, and they were giggling. Evan’s aura was upbeat, content, and a little hazy. Andria stood there for a moment in shock, but then she understood why Josh had been patronizing Evan so much for wanting to be with her; they had similar personalities and he just couldn't realize why Evan was falling for only one girl, especially a girl who wasn’t popular.

She felt someone staring at her from across the room and realized it was Josh because of his smug and conceded aura. Erin was under his arm and a sly smile covered his mouth and eyes.

Josh set me up. She thought.

He knew how Evan usually acted at parties and figured it was a good way to get rid of her. She didn’t want to let him win, but it wasn’t his fault. At least she was finding out now rather than later. It would have been worse if Andria had decided to turn Evan and then found out. So, in a way, she should have thanked Josh for showing her the light. In a way.

She looked back at Evan and his clan of giggling girls. Before she turned her gaze away to find the door, he caught her stare in his. When he stopped laughing and actually processed a thought, he realized who she was. His face went blank, his heart fell, and his shoulders slumped. He couldn’t believe he had forgotten she was at the party. What had he done? She didn’t give him a chance to say anything, but left before he could even move, almost running out the door.

Evan found Josh’s gaze on him and realized what had happened.

He ran out the front door after Andria, but she was already on her bike and speeding away from the house. She chastised herself for being ignorant and thinking Evan had been someone he wasn’t. He had sure fooled her, but what she couldn't understand was the deep connection she had felt with him the first time she saw him. Maybe she had misread the situation.

As she looked back at the house, Evan stood on the front lawn and wished her to come back. She wanted to turn around, wanted to let him explain, but it wouldn’t do any good. He wasn’t who she thought and probably never would be. He was a josh and she hated Josh. She just couldn’t understand why she needed to be around him so fiercely. She scolded herself for becoming vulnerable and getting involved with a human. Marcus had been right.

When Evan realized Andria wasn’t coming back, he slumped back inside to find Josh.

“Dude what the hell is your problem?” Evan shoved Josh from behind.

“What are you talking about?” Josh said innocently.

Everyone inside was staring at the fight. Some were even peering over the banister from upstairs for a better look.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You told me to invite Andria here because you knew how I used to act. You did this on purpose.” Evan yelled in his face.

“Man whatever you did is your own fault. Don’t blame me because the freak saw you with those girls.” He said.

“I can’t believe you would do this to me just because you don’t like her. You knew what might happen and you didn’t even care. You were supposed to be my best friend, but you completely screwed everything up this time. And now the greatest girl in the world will probably never talk to me again!” Evan said that last part louder than the rest so everyone would be sure to hear. He wanted them to know how great Andria really was and that he was going to do anything to be with her.

He turned to walk out of the house but stopped when he saw Erin.

“Oh by the way, Erin, Josh doesn’t really like you. He’s only using you because you’ll give it up to him for free.” He told her.

Tears began to roll down her face as he walked out the front door. Then Erin slapped Josh hard across the face.

Another Excerpt from BD

So my re-write is totally kick ass. I mean really, so much more content! Evan really comes back to life and shows every bit of his personality. It's really great and it makes me happy to see his entire perspective again. He's still inhibited compared to Andria because he's thrown into a fantastical world, her world, so she's the one watching over him. He doesn't mind her watchful eye because he trusts her, but he also has that itching to be the Alpha male, per say. I'm sure no man really wants to be overruled by a woman, but Andria doesn't do that. She treats him with equal respect and trusts him as well. Evan is still learning and adapting, but he's doing it with manly style, I guess you could say. What I'm trying to say is that he's not a sissy. He's just slightly fearful and overwhelmed by his new life. He's still assimilating.

I watched Gossip Girl tonight, although it had apparently started last week and I wasn't aware. But I saw that the author used the when-in-doubt style and killed off Bart Bass. I thought it a grand move because I had no clue as to where the story could go from there. It was in a hole, but not now! I'm excited to see what the author wrote next. I've never read the books, so I don't know how closely the show is related, but it has a lot of eye candy and that's what got me hooked. Jenny is my favorite, with all her fierceness and independence. That's mainly why I watch it. She went a little nuts, but I think we all did at fifteen. Talk about some awesome makeup too. If I were to wear such dark eyeshadow out in public, as I wish I could, people would call me a freak. Not that I care what they really think, but I would like to be taken seriously. I'm going to get nowhere in the writing world with such awesome makeup, that's for sure. As far as I'm aware, the writing trend is too much coffee, drabby clothes, and zero makeup. I hate to fall into that. Oh well, at least I'll have my awesome converse to keep me sane.

Here is a random excerpt from my re-write. Here we have A & E's first meet 'n' greet:

During first period, Andria decided to give Evan a little test to see if he was actually interested in her whatsoever.

She got to his second period class before he did – again, like a stalker – and leaned against the wall a little ways down from the door where he was sure to see her.

The crowd in the hallway was dense, so she was having a difficult time watching out for Evan. She felt him approach before she actually saw him. This time he was by himself, which made things a little easier on her. She wouldn’t have to fight off any haters to talk to him. He was walking towards her from the opposite side of the door from where she was leaning. He went to walk in the classroom when he felt the paranoia. He looked up and found the eyes that were heavy with affection.
Andria’s eyes, hoping and praying he would find her and come over to her, allowing her fears of his marker to subside so she could easily make a decision about him.

He hesitated for a second, took a deep breath, and walked over to her. He scooted along the wall away from the crowd and stopped a few feet in front of her.

“Hey,” he greeted.

The warning was still very prominent in his aura and her nose wrinkled. Now that she had an educated guess concerning the smell of his aura, she didn’t have the urgency to run. She was still wary about using him as a food source, but that wouldn’t be a problem. She wanted to be with Evan, not drink his blood.

“Andria,” she introduced herself as she held out her hand.

Evan wondered why she was introducing herself. He already knew who she was, seeing as how he said hi to her in the mall. Although hearing her introduce herself made the situation a little less imaginary and a little more real to him. Too bad he was in shock.

“I know who you are. I’m Evan,” he said.

He took her hand, but didn’t shake it. Actually, he kind of just stared at her. He liked it though, the feeling of her hand. She made him feel calm, but underneath he could still feel the panic. All of a sudden, he got the strange idea that maybe she had not been waiting on him, but someone else. He was sad at the thought.

“Were you waiting for someone?” He asked her as he looked around the hall.

“I was waiting for you,” she said truthfully.

“Oh.” His blood did that wonderful pooling thing in his cheeks. Her insides felt like they were in space. She was floating.

“I heard you were talking about me,” she told him. It wasn’t a lie. She had heard him talking about her.

“Oh,” he said again. It was all he could say. He really wasn’t sure what to say because he wasn’t sure what she had heard.

Andria figured that either he wasn’t very good at conversation in general like Marcy had said or he wasn’t very good at it with her. She gave him a quizzical stare.

“Oh, no I mean I wasn’t talking bad about you or anything. I was just … uh, I was only trying … actually I don’t really know why I was talking about you.” He finally stuttered out.

She drew back from him a little hurt, but more confused. He had asked Josh about her, but now he didn’t even sound interested. She figured she had raised her hopes for nothing and now she was no longer floating.

“Oh, okay. Well then I’ll see ya.” She turned to leave.

“No wait,” he reached out to touch her shoulder but then thought better of it. He wanted to fix whatever he had said to hurt her. “I didn’t mean what it sounded like. Don’t leave, I just … well, you make me nervous and when I’m nervous my words come out all jumbled.” He looked really sorry for being confused and even though she wasn’t actually able to influence minds yet, she still felt responsible for his confounded behavior.

“You have every reason to be nervous,” she told him a little too menacingly.
Evan looked worried and possibly a little terrified. She made it sound as if she was supposed to make everyone nervous.

The one-minute warning bell sounded, telling us how long we had to get into our next class.
Evan hastily put aside his fears and nervousness and attempted to make their last seconds count. The only thing he could think to say was, “Have lunch with me?”

His question took her off guard shortly, but her intuition told her to agree. “Okay,” she agreed.

He smiled. “Meet me…”

“I’ll find you,” she cut him off. She gave him a smile and walked away and as she did, she began to float again.

He started to ask her how she would find him, but then stopped. She obviously knew what she was doing and for some odd reason he trusted her. He took one step after her involuntarily because he didn’t want her to leave. He wanted her to stay with him and make his heart stop hurting. He wanted her touch to make him feel calm as it had before. But he knew she couldn’t stay. She had her own class to go to, so he went into his own.

After the conversation with Andria, Evan was reeling. He still wasn’t paying attention in class, but not because of a broken heart. His heart was beginning to heal slowly; he could feel it. But he felt that if he didn’t see her again soon then it would start hurting again. Good thing he was seeing her at lunch.

Then he began to panic and began to wonder what he was going to say to her. He had no idea how to talk to her. Actually, he was surprised he even had the guts to ask her out. Well, technically, he didn’t ask her out, just to eat lunch with him, at school, in the cafeteria, with a crowd of other people. But he would take it, anything to be close to her.

Lunch couldn’t come soon enough that day for either of them, but for Andria it wasn’t about what she was going to say to Evan, but what she was going to tell the others. She hadn’t factored them into all of this and now she was beginning to regret talking to Evan. She wasn’t sure what she was more afraid of, the others not understanding or them hating him. If she were to just simply go up to them and tell them she was infatuated with a human, she wondered what their responses would be.

She knew Marcus would probably freak because he hated humans and didn’t think mixing species was right. He not having been human in eight years was probably another factor to what she thought his reaction would be. Kelley would probably say it was none of her business and go back to reading her book of the day. Sarah on the other hand would be thrilled that Andria was following in her footsteps. Sarah always wanted her to be her “wingman”. Now Robert. He was tricky. Robert and Andria were the closest out of the others but still she wasn’t sure what he would do. He was not a very emotional person, but he was a good friend. She thought he would support her. Their opinions mattered a lot to her because they were like a little coven, although not really.

Beautiful Disruption

Okay, so here I am - Kori the write-a-holic. I'm pretty sure my parents have changed my student status to bum during these five weeks of holiday. Too bad they would be super wrong. I finished two novels, edited both, and did all necessary preparations to query one and enter the other into ABNA. Now, too bad I just had the ridiculous idea last night to change Under the Full Moon (btw, changed to Beautiful Disruption thanks to a pretty cool dude) into third person instead of first. I'm really glad I'm making the change because with just Andi's POV, there was so much of Evan being left out. It was quite sad actually. So now I think I've found the perfect compromise for the attached author that I am. I love A and E and I didn't want to let go of either of them. Now I can have them both!

I'm really trying to get through the Sword of Truth series, but every time I pick up Stone of Tears, I find myself wanting to delete all of my own work. It's quite horrible actually. Goodkind is so amazing and I could never be compared to him, but he has taught me a lot about detail. Now, don't get me started on the TV series because I will seriously kill myself. I was flipping through the channels last night and came across it (btw, haven't watched an episode since the first one) and almost died of embarrassment for Goodkind. Holy crap, it is nothing like the books and that makes me want to cry ... a lot. I mean really Kahlan, you can't leave Richard and pass him off to another Confessor because there's only one problem ... all of the Confessors are dead, you're the only one left! Were you not informed of this or are you just a selfish Mother Confessor who doesn't take her job seriously? Needless to say, stupid Hollywood.

Now I will be getting back to rewriting Beautiful Disruption because I only have a couple weeks...
Here is a sneak peek at the work I've completed so far. This is the beginning of the entire book.

-----------

The room was almost bare with only a mattress in the center of the floor, a dresser filled with clothes, and an iHome. The walls were blue, but void of decoration or anything personal. Andria lay on the mattress as she stared at the blank walls and waited for her alarm to buzz, signaling the start of a new school day.

She kicked her black comforter away from her body as the alarm finally released her from false slumber. She rolled off the mattress and onto the floor before getting to her feet. She rubbed her eyes to fool her mother into thinking she was still tired, and went down the few stairs separating the rest of the house from the living room and kitchen. Once in the kitchen, she grabbed a pop tart out of the cabinet – a charade. At any moment, her mother would walk into the kitchen and bid her good morning, so she had to make her think she was eating.

“Good morning, Andria.” Her mother greeted in a worn out voice, right on cue.

“Morning,” Andria said, making her voice sound tired as well. She took a bite out of the pop tart while her mother continued to look at her. “Oh hey Mom, I’m going to go to the mall right after school just so you know, but I’ll be home for dinner.” She told her mom, allowing her to think she always knew what Andria was up to when she really didn’t.

“Okay, have fun.” Mom supplied a quick smile, poured herself some cereal, and sat down at the kitchen table to eat her breakfast.

Andria took the unfinished pop tart with her to the bathroom. She closed her fist around its entirety and it almost immediately crumpled into sugar. She dumped the grainy remains into the trashcan and got in the shower. Then she finished getting ready for the day and headed off to school.

Before she walked into the school, she removed her sunglasses and put her earphones in her ears to help keep her attention away from the humans.

She turned the volume up as loud as it would go and walked into the building. She could still hear their heartbeats over the music, but the complicated double bass in her ears allowed her to focus her thoughts otherwise in order to keep from harming anyone as she walked to her first class.



Evan’s eyes were so heavy he could barely tell what he was reading. He sat in the cafeteria before school, looking over his government notes one final time before he had to take the test in first period.
Even though he had stayed up all night studying, he still didn’t know the material well enough, but it would be enough to pass.

He leaned back in the chair he was sitting in and stared out the window he was facing, willing the bright sun to revive him.

Next time I’ll have to remember I have a test. He thought.

He turned his attention to the big clock near the ceiling to check the time. If he didn’t leave soon, he would be late.

Standing, he gathered his things off the table and stored them in his backpack. He turned around to push in his
chair and that was when he saw her.

She was walking down the main hall just as normal as ever, except that she had earphones in her ears. That may not be abnormal, but people usually use their out-of-class time wisely such as talking to their friends, but she didn’t greet anyone nor did she look at anyone. Her eyes focused straight ahead, yet she seemed to be in another world. Evan had never seen a girl so enthralled by music that it kept her from social interaction, but that wasn’t what caught his initial attention.

She was beautiful. Yes, a lot of girls are beautiful, especially the ones who try their hardest to be so, but she was a natural beauty.

Her skin was creamy, deathly white and her hair was a long, silky, deep black. Her face was round, the type of round that makes you want to cup your hands around the sides just for the feeling. Her entire body was slender, yet curvy, and her baggy black pants weren’t formfitting like her dark burgundy t-shirt, but they still flattered her. She stood just over five foot, a good foot below Evan.

Josh came up to Evan just then, causing him to look away from the beautiful creature.

“Evan. Ready for that Gov test?” Josh asked.

Evan looked back towards the hall, finding her almost immediately. “Who is that?” He asked Josh, not removing his focus.

Josh followed his gaze. “Uh, Andria Marcellus, I’m pretty sure. Dude, we’re gonna be late again.”

Andria Marcellus. Evan was entranced.

He and Josh walked out of the cafeteria and into the crowded main hallway. He looked for Andria, but she was too far ahead and the crowd was too thick for him to see her.He followed Josh into their government class, not being able to remove her from his thoughts. Not wanting to remove her from his thoughts.

ABNA Pitch & The Great Funnel

Here is my pitch for the Amazon Novel contest in February. Anyone stopping by, please critique.

As Andria Marcellus continues to grow into her new life as a vampire, a beautiful disruption enters her world in the form of a human boy named Evan Wilcox, but he’s not just any human boy. His aura carries a strange scent that crawls up Andria’s nose, leaves her curious, and also warns her to stay away. When she does an experiment and figures out that the scent was left by a vampire feeding from this curious human, she begins to wonder who is feeding from him and why. As she draws closer despite the warning, she discovers that they have The Fire and she won’t fight it because she wants to keep him.

When her friends find out that she is dating a human, Andria finds herself in a world of trouble, trouble she is scared will end in death. Struggling to keep Evan close to her without revealing her true self, she realizes that he might care for her just as much as she cares for him. But suddenly, his parents are murdered and the culprit is a vampire. Not long after their deaths, Andria’s dad, who left her and her mom when she was little, returns to her life, but not without changing her life completely and for the better. Not long after, a completely new array of problems begins to surface. Some are minimal and easy to over look, but others are deadly and call for self-sacrifice, especially from Evan.

UNDER THE FULL MOON will appeal to young adult vampire enthusiasts, those intrigued with death and danger, and those who prefer to live in suspense.

Are you intrigued? I hope so because I have to beat out lots of people to make it past this stage of the competition.

So I've been working on my Dead Girl story for most of the day and now I have a working title: The Great Funnel ... my story incorporates pieces of Dante's Inferno and it has been referred to as a great funnel spiraling through the core of the earth. I thought it fit pretty well, but it can always be changed. I have tons of new plot ideas and I love them all.

My MC, Matthew, is a "reincarnated" demon keeper from Hell and he is now a 16-year-old boy. So this dead girl, Hannah, shows up in his room after he told her earlier that day that she's going to die. So pretty much, the demons Matthew used to keep are on the lose (one killed Hannah) and he is being summoned back to his former post in Hell to round them back into their dominion.

Yes or no? I say yes, but then again it was my idea.
Feedback please!

Dead Girl Story...

Yesterday I read Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy and it was really great. To state the truth, I haven't read a plot that good since HoN (my fav). So, that's really saying something. I actually picked it up because the author's agent is the agent I would really like to take on PORFEARIA. She has a really good eye, so I guess if I get a rejection email than I know my work sucks ... haha okay maybe not sucks, just not her style ... maybe. But no use worrying over that.

Today I am going to pick up my Dead Girl story, which I started just before NaNo and had to abandon. It's really one of my favorite ideas I've had. I would rank it directly under UFM. I don't have a title for it yet because I don't actually know where the plot is going to go. I have a few ideas, but nothing set in stone as of yet.

Here's a sneak peek at part of the first chapter:

I walked out of the house, shutting the door behind me.

I made my way down the all-too-familiar front steps and onto the sidewalk. I took a left and rounded the corner of the block. There was hardly anyone around, it being a Saturday, but as soon as I walked around the corner of the next block, the streets came alive. The shopping district was busy as usual with pedestrians and cars, but mostly pedestrians walking from shop to shop. I was still a street away from it, waiting for the appropriate crossing signal. When the correct signal told me it was safe, I walked across the street and in front of the shops.

I had to weave my way in and out of the shopping crowd of mostly mothers and daughters until I finally came to the next corner where I turned right and crossed another street. When I had made it safely across and taken a few paces I accidentally knocked into someone. I turned and mumbled an apology and continued on my way. But then I noticed what my subconscious had already noticed.

I remembered seeing red and the color immediately triggered the dream. I turned around to prove to myself that whomever I had bumped into wasn’t her, but I was wrong. It was her: her dark copper jeans, brown hair, and of course the red jacket. It was too big on her, on the real her that was in front of my eyes.

She stopped at the curb I had come up on before bumping into her and waited for the signal to cross safely. She turned to the side, giving me a profile view of her face. She was as beautiful as she had been in my dream, but this time she didn’t look helpless. Her hands were in her jacket pockets and I noticed she was wearing sandals. They were copper to match her pants. I had noticed girls wearing sandals in winter before, but had never given it a second thought. Now it occurred to me that her feet were probably freezing.

I thought it weird that she was wearing the same outfit as in my dream. Maybe it signaled something. Maybe it signaled her death. I approached her, scared that if I didn’t then she would go to her death when I could have prevented it. But I didn’t know how she would die, just that she would.

“Excuse me,” I said, putting my hand on her right shoulder.

She faced me and I removed my hand. She eyed me from the ground up, finally landing on my mouth.

“Um, okay, this is really weird but I … uh …” I stuttered.

“Spit it out,” she said.

“Okay … I think you’re going to die today.” I said, holding my breath.

“You what!” She raised her voice in shock.

“Yeah … I think you might die today.”

“Ugh, freak!” She said, taking a step back.

She tripped on her sandals and fell backwards off the curb and into the street. I took a step forward, about to step off the curb and help her up. Right before I reached down to give her my hand she got up to her feet, then she screamed.

The light was green, the car coming for her wasn’t stopping, and it was going too fast. It hit her, the front bumper hitting her legs, throwing her into the windshield too hard. She stuck in the windshield until the driver slammed down on the breaks, throwing her back onto the pavement. I stood there in shock, one foot off the curb.

And here is my word count so far ... not much, but I hope my muse comes back soon so I can really get going.

Holy Crap

Today was like any other day within my five week holiday: eventless. For starters, I stayed up until 3 am, slept until noon, and played around online. Eventually, I worked on editing UFM and only have the last two chapters to finish, which will either come to their end tonight or tomorrow. Either way, I am way ahead of my schedule to be ready for the Amazon Novel contest. After I finish editing, I just might take the manuscript up to my Senior year high school English teacher and ask him to read it because we were tight in the sense that he was super cool and he was an awesome mentor to me. So, he'll be super stoked when he finds out that I've now written two books and that I'm an English major, seeing as how he knew I started out in engineering (I've always wanted to be a rocket scientist, but man did that get boring after two years). Who knows what I'll do. Whatever I feel like, I guess.

So here I am, wasting time when I could be editing... I'm off.

Last comment, a friend of mine just started a new blog so go check her out. She's also a writer and she's very talented, so go check out her stuff.
http://girlwhowritesbooks.blogspot.com

UFM Update

My muse still hasn't come back. This is getting quite ridiculous. She has never gone away this long and I'm beginning to worry. Oh well, I guess she deserves a holiday just like everyone else in the world. Bummer. That's okay though because it gives me a lot of free time to edit Under the Full Moon in time for Amazon's Novel contest. I still have to write up a great pitch, which I think is the hardest part about writing, especially for this contest. If they read my pitch and hate it then I'm totally screwed because they won't even go on to read an excerpt. I mean it's really going to break my heart if I don't even get past the pitch. That's all I'm asking for actually. Just read my pitch and move onto the next step and I will beam with joy and gratitude.

I had to end up leaving out Evan's narrative in Under the Full Moon because even though it added volume, character traits and development, and most importantly insight into Evan's mind, it was really boring reading both Andi and Evan's POV in the same story. Mostly because they are most always together, but you see, when they aren't together is when I need Evan's POV the most. So I came up with a compromise and it's very much growing on me to the point where I just might keep it...

I completely took out Evan's POV and let him do a single narrative at the beginning of each chapter. It works well because it gives an over view of the chapter, but it also shows how Evan feels about some things, the most important things. This is important because there are a few moments in the story that crucially defines Evan's character to the point where the reader needs to know why he does what he does. For instance: when he finds out his parents were vamp hunters, he gets upset and throws blood all over the kitchen. Well, the reason he was upset was because they never spent any time with him when they were alive and now he's finding out why. This greatly affects him because when they were alive he was dating a vamp and they would have killed her if they had ever met her the way he wanted them to. PLUS, now he is also a vamp, so really, he is now everything they stood against. This is why he is upset and you see, the reader would never have known his reasoning for being upset if they didn't have his narrative. A personal narrative is a lot more crucial than dialogue. Personal narrative shows what the character really feels and how he/she deals with things.

Long story made long, I like the new set up for this book and I hope the Amazon judges likes it as well.

Now, I am going to work on editing Chapter Four and hopefully tomorrow I can edit the last two chapters. Even though it isn't necessary, I've been advised to actually use my holiday as an advantage to relax.

15 days until the Spring semester...
American Lit
Computers and Writing (they teach you how to write a BLOG!)
Latin III
Latin IV
Structures of the English Language

Writertopia

Here is a better example of my mood and work progress on the second book in the Under the Full Moon series. These are quite comical.

Lost Muse

Life can really throw some pretty rad curveballs if you think about it. For instance, every time I am at the mall (about twice a year) I run into one of my ex boyfriends and to make it more interesting, he lives in California because he's a Marine. I mean, really? Do you think the Universe is bored and likes to make my brain go into rollercoaster mode? If so, mission accomplished. But no, it's really more interesting than bumpy, seeing as how there are no lingering feelings between us. Actually, we went to high school together, his mom taught me Geometry Freshman year, and his dad taught my older siblings when they were in high school. So pretty much our families are quite connected ... in a way. It's quite odd now that I think about it.

Anyway...
The editing of Under the Full Moon is coming along quite well. I'm still not sure if I really like the title, but everything else I've thought of sounds even worse. I've started the second book (overall, it is planned to be a trilogy) and I'm into Chapter Two with some various scenes written in other chapters. I've come to a stand-still though. I think my muse has abandoned me because I work her over time. Actually, if you see her around, let me know. She has black hair, lots of black eye makeup, and she's about as big as a thumbelina with wings. No, she's not a fairy.

Divide

A scene I finished today:

From Chapter Two: Divide

I stood up from where I was leaning on a tree and walked away from the group. I couldn’t stand to hear any more talk of allying with the hunters. It wasn’t right, it wasn’t us. Our kind was supposed to be strong, dependent on no one. But here we were, discussing allying ourselves with humans, and then it got worse because the humans were hunters, vampire hunters. It just went against everything I was ever told and I didn’t feel right being a part of it.

I knew that helping the hunters was the right thing to do compared with Marcus’s ideas, but what about just by itself? Was it right to help the hunters when it wasn’t our fight? Sure, Marcus was trying to exterminate them and that would be murder, but was it our problem?

A vampire hunter’s job was to kill vampires, which I was. I just couldn’t wrap my head around being their ally. It didn’t make any sense to me. I mean, we could all just leave them to this battle and go to a different state, Europe even. I didn’t have anything important here anymore and I knew Evan, Sarah, Kelley, and my dad would go with me if I could only convince them to.

“Andria?”

I placed the palms of my hands on the back of my neck and turned around to find Evan standing behind me. I had walked a good ways from the group and no human could possibly hear us talking where we were.

“Is everything okay?” He asked.

I put my hands in the front, big pocket of my black hoodie and kicked at the dirt on the ground. “I don’t think it’s right.” I said softly.

“What don’t you think is right?” He asked, closing the gap in between us.

“I don’t think it’s right to side with the hunters.” I looked into his face. “Evan, they hunt us. We’re not supposed to mix. It’s just not right. It’s not how things should be, not how things are.” Evan let out a long breath and I could see it in the cold morning air. “I don’t expect you to understand what I’m feeling. After all, you are still very much human, but it just doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know how to really feel about all this.”

“Oh Andria,” he swept me against his body and I went limp against him. “There can’t be three sides to a war. We need an ally and our only choice is the humans. Andria, we would be more beneficial to this fight if we sided with them. They need our strength and our powers. They will not come out of this alive unless we help them.”

I removed myself from his grasp and took a step back. “I just don’t see how we can form a united front with the humans. They will hate us, especially the hunters. Humans grow up in the world they know and aren’t going to accept such a disruption in their knowledge. And the hunters. They train to fight us, to kill us. It just won’t work; we have to remain divided.”

“We are finally free from Marcus, but what is freedom if we can’t side with who we should? Don’t you see we are more human than vampire in this case? I know that we are not human, but we are more like them in our hearts than maybe we care to be. It is Marcus who portrays the vampire heart in this battle and Andria, we are not like him.” Evan pleaded with me.

I stepped closer to him and gently grabbed both of his shoulders, “Evan, I know that we are not like Marcus in the sense that we don’t want this to happen, but we are not human. We do not belong with them. We belong together, not with them or Marcus.”

“I don’t want to argue with you, but my position isn’t going to change. I am not going to let Marcus rule my decisions simply because we are the same species. Don’t you get it? This isn’t right and we must help those who cannot help themselves.” Evan said.

“What if we just left? We could move to another state or even another country? I know you may think it to be the cowardly way out, but if this does turn into a war then we will have to fight.” I looked up at him as tears began to fall from my eyes. “I don’t want to lose you.”

He took me into his arms again and held me tight, trying to comfort me. I knew this was going to turn out bad and I didn’t want to stick around to find out. But most of all, I didn’t want to put myself into the situation of losing Evan or any of the others. I didn’t know what to do.