Sunday, July 26, 2009

Lost Muse ... Again

It seems this happens a couple times a year. This being the second time so far this year. I would say that's racking up the numbers high, but it's already the end of July. Oh how time flies. So, again, my Muse has abandoned me to take a vacation. I never allow a paid one so she gets pissed sometimes and stomps off. She always comes back though ... with tan lines and a hang over. I'd like to put up a sign on the internet that says ...

LOST MUSE
Please return if found.

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.

Call her a fairy and you will wake up in the ninth circle.



HAHA. Well, I think it's funny.

So that's my post. How lost I am on Chapter Ten. There is no way around it. This only happens to me every so often. About as often as my Muse leaves me. Could there be a connection?

Have I said this yet? I think I'm going to rename THE GREAT FUNNEL as THE KEEPER. What do you think? Leave me a comment with your vote.

THE GREAT FUNNEL
or
THE KEEPER

Saturday, July 25, 2009

"A piece of me longed for her thoughts, but I knew better than to steal them."

TGF is coming along nicely. I recently found myself stuck on chapter 10. To solve that problem I started writing backwards from the ending. I had already written the final scene, knowing exactly how it would end, so it was easy for me to build onto what was already there. I'm still stuck on chapter 10 though, so problem is still not being solved. I don't ever outline, so maybe that is my problem. Any ideas?

I came across a RT of an author's book giveaway yesterday. Her name is Stacia Kane and you should check out that link to her site and give her books a read. I have put them on my own TBR list.

I submitted my first book, Porfearia, to Sapphire Blue Publishing last week. I'm anxious to see what will come of that because several of my favorite authors are published through them. Granted, they only publish e-books, but it would be a step in the write direction and open up several more doors for TGF as soon as that is complete. Too bad it takes them two months to get back to you about your submitted manuscript. I'll be anxiously awaiting their reply until then.

So I haven't heard from some of you guys in a while. What has been going on? Leave a comment. Tell me what you've been working on/reading. School starts back in a few weeks, right?

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

TGF Update & Excerpt

Just wanted to give a quick update on The Great Funnel progress.

I'm spitting out a chapter a week (spitting isn't quite the word because you usually spit crap and this isn't crap, lol), usually written solely on the weekends because my weeks are so busy. I am sitting at 27K at the moment and not even into the main plot of the story yet. Well, I guess the entire book is the main plot, but I haven't really gotten to the juicy part yet. I developed a sub-plot today during my History of British Literature class. My professor is so inspiring that I can't help but write all through his lectures, lol. In my defense, I have read Lanval before.

Want to hear about the sub-plot? I'll post it for you!

One more thing. Have been slowly assimilating into reading romance (of all kinds) and found this really amazing author, Heather Long. You can visit her site HERE. Her book, Remembering Ashby, is sold by Sapphire Blue Publishing HERE so click on those links and read up on her wonderful talent. She currently has posted a free download of a short story that you can, obviously, download for free. Check that out on her site as well and leave your comments here or on her BLOG. Make sure you follow her blog as well to get a "daily dose" each morning to start your day out right.

I think that's all I have for today. Enjoy the sub-plot.

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

Dis looked lonely from where I stood. The top of the highest tower was at least one hundred stories tall. It loomed over everything.

“Do you believe you have made the best decision bringing an Umbra into this?” Dyntai stood on my right with his hands perched on the short, stone wall surrounding us.

I addressed him with my eyes on the black horizon. “Dyntai, tell me. The Consilii has developed feelings, as well as the others. How is that so?”

He began to pace around the platform. The regular guards had been dismissed for the time being. Privacy was an issue at the moment. I couldn’t trust anyone, especially the new additions to my army.

“Diabulus’ hold has weakened, thus punishment has weakened.” His hands were clasped behind his back as if what he was telling me was common knowledge.

“Dyntai, you know as well as I do that Diabulus is a mere pawn.”

He ceased his pacing and stared into my soul. “Exactly.”

I hesitated briefly before standing tall and confident.

So, Hell was falling apart because of me.

“Why was my replacement not informed? He was supposed to rule Hell upon my reincarnation.”

“Devastation learned this knowledge regarding Diabulus and surpassed as leader of Hell.”

“He was named Keeper?”

“No, the one named Keeper was also a pawn, thus the escape of the Conterent.”

My voice remained confident. “That’s impossible.”

“Devastation has many followers, Morealis. Many are loyal to him. Devotedly so.” The tone in Dyntai’s voice warned me of the new danger to my army.

I had claimed Devastation’s loyal followers. There was no telling what they would do to me.

“We need someone on the inside who is loyal to us, but pledges loyalty to Devastation.”

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Evernight by Claudia Gray

I'm not very good at reviews and that sort of thing, but I am going to tell you my reactions.
I sat down this morning about three chapters into Evernight and started reading while I ate my breakfast. It has been too long since I've read a book (instead of written one) that I had forgotten how much I had always enjoyed it. So I started reading from chapter 3 at 10:00am and finished the entire book about 4:00pm. Obviously I got up during that stretch to start laundry and make lunch and such. But overall I was quite addicted to Bianca and Lucas. However, let me admit this now: I was rooting for Balthazar. But then again, just as Balthazar states, "I guess I have a soft spot for the underdog in any fight."

CAUTION: SPOILERS

Evernight by Claudia Gray
At the eerily Gothic Evernight Academy, the other students are sleek, smart, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn't fit in.

When she meets handsome, brooding Lucas, he warns her to be careful - even when it comes to caring about him. But the connection between them can't be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart ... and to make Bianca question everything she's ever believed.


From the beginning of Evernight, the MC, Bianca, is not a confident 16-year-old girl who has been forced to attend Evernight academy by her parents who have taken teaching positions at the school. That definitely doesn't make assimilating into an all-vampire boarding school any easier. Too bad "Blood" wasn't even mentioned until page 139 and "vampire" wasn't even mentioned until page 141 ... and not even by the MC. But that wasn't what got me. What really got me was the weak female MC, Bianca. I believe in strong heroines that don't rely on love to make them whole and feel as if they can conquer all. That was the only issue I really had with this book.

Bianca is a vampire herself, although not fully. She is a special case, born to two vampires, which only happens to about a dozen each century. She still hasn't gone through the complete change, which would require her to kill a human. Actually, she's never even had fresh human blood.

Until Lucas, a human, is admitted into the school, along with about thirty other humans. This, of course, has never taken place at Evernight Academy before.

Obviously Bianca and Lucas fall in love and the whole shebang. Typical YA. (Btw, I'm not very much on the whole romance side of things so don't get me wrong if you like romance. I'm just not that person.)

Bianca leaves us at the end of Evernight alone and miserable, yet still hopeful. She's willing to risk the trust she has gained from her parents and teachers in order to help her vampire hunter boyfriend, Lucas, find out why exactly Mrs. Bethany, Evernight's headmistress, is finally admitting humans into the school.


As soon as Lucas and Bianca met at the beginning of the book, I automatically resigned myself to wondering why I'm still reading YA. Honestly, I wasn't sure because as soon as Lucas told Bianca to be careful, even to be careful when it came to caring about him, I was automatically disappointed because that's a clear sign that tells the reader, "Hey, this guy has a huge-ass secret. Watch out for clues." But about the mid-point of the book I remembered >> YA authors always have the best spins and subplots.

It's true.

Up until about the middle of the book I was honestly so bored with the entire boarding school spin on teen romance that I was about to just put the book down forever. The first thought I had was, "Man, this is going to be like the Gallagher Girls without the whole spy thing." Part of that was my fault because I am very dedicated to fast-paced science fiction and fantasy novels and not romance (especially since I write them myself and write them at a fast pace). I prefer books with lots of supernatural and very little romance.

But boy, was I wrong.

I had originally started reading this book because a friend of mine had told me, being the supernatural fan that I am, that I would really enjoy it ... although Stargazer was better. But I had to get through Evernight first. I thought she was pulling my leg once I started reading the book. I was cursing myself for falling for another trick to get me to read some horribly written YA book (Twilight comes to mind, although I knew it sucked before it became popular with swooning 12-year-olds).

Let's just say I re-thought all of my doubts once I hit chapter eight. Everything started piecing itself together and I finally understood several blanks hitherto ... which meant they were no longer blanks.

Everything began to revert back to the supernatural and that made me happy. That's about the point when I wouldn't, or maybe couldn't, put the book down.

I figured out that I had been spending all of my energy trying to figure out Lucas when I should have spent some energy figuring out Bianca. That was the real spin that got me. It has been a very long time since a book has actually out-smarted me. I was highly impressed when I was thrown for a loop. I had already known that Bianca's parents were vampires, simply by her stating that they would sleep until noon if allowed. The thing that got me was that the students acted like regular jealous teenagers. That was until their bucket of secrets started spilling over. That was my favorite part, btw. The romance can get completely taken out of this book and I would be super happy just to learn about each student and their past.

The bad thing about Lucas' character was that I wanted to hit him in the face a few times. He never really earned my affection and I ended up falling for Balthazar instead. But then again, I'm not one for the mixing of species ... especially vampire and hunter (which is very much an issue in my Beautiful Disruption book 2). I have never thought it appropriate and always created more problems than it fixed, but then again love conquers all, right? ... Or does it?



Well, there you have it, my sketchy ramblings of Claudia Gray's Evernight.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the spins and subplots and definitely enjoyed the book. I'm told Balthazar plays a larger role in Stargazer so I'll definitely be looking forward to that.

And no, I'm definitely never going to be doing reviews as a day job ... :)

Sunday, July 5, 2009

TGF Excerpt & Update

Wow, tripling your projected word count for the day is invigorating. I absolutely love how when I begin to write, I can't stop! Unless I hit a wall. But then I walk around my room for a few minutes and BAM! Instant idea. Thank you, Mr. Brain Wave. You've been most helpful.

I'm finishing up Chapter 7 of The Great Funnel today. I've hit 23K today and still pressing hard. I have a lot more to go to get this baby completed by December, but I'm going to do it.

I've been having this problem lately to where I'll sit in class and, instead of taking notes, I'll write out a new scene. Writing long-hand is very refreshing since I don't do it very often. My MacBook goes everywhere with me so I usually rely on it.

I'm going to try and send out more queries this week after finals on Tuesday. All I've received are rejections so far, but I'm pushing through. I just need to find an agent that can connect with my work. I think once I finish The Great Funnel, I'll get a lot of positive feedback. But then again, I'm sure most unpublished writers say that. Who knows! Only time and patience will tell.

I found this amazing quote today from Silko's Storyteller.

Italic
"With these stories of ours
we can escape almost anything
with these stories we will survive."




Okay, fine! I'll post an excerpt. You talked me into it.
This scene is the beginning of Chapter 7. Matthew has re-entered into Hell and reclaimed his rightful place as head Keeper and Diabulus' (Lucifer's) right-hand man.

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

With the Book still in my hand, I covered it with my other hand and it disappeared back to its rightful place.

As my army stood around me, my entire past life came flooding back to me automatically. I was amazed at how much my human memory had suppressed. Who knew that the human mind was so extremely powerful?

I especially remembered who had wronged me.

“Jester.” After I spoke, one of the demons stalked forward and stopped five feet from me. “Lead me to Diabulus.”

Jester looked up at me slowly as his face went blank. Anger briefly touched his eyes and then he hesitantly nodded in complains.

Satisfied with my command, I looked around to the rest o my command. “Go regain your posts.”

“Morealis,” one of the demons called.

I nodded my head. “Dyntai.”

“Devastation’s men have taken over our posts. They guard Dis.”

“Do not concern yourself with Devastation’s men. Reclaim your rightful place in Dis. All who stand in your way shall answer to me.”

Dyntai nodded once in affirmation and then his head reclaimed its bow in reverence.

“If any of you have further concerns I should know about, seek me out anon.” I paused as my inside shivered with power. “I have returned as your Keeper.”

My army sneered and swayed on their bony, strong feet in satisfaction. Drool made its way down their faces, causing their optical terror to increase.

“Now go!” I yelled.

They stalked off as blood thirsty demons as they went to reclaim their rightful places in the city.

No wonder the city had been almost empty when Devastation had summoned me. Apparently he had been supplied with an army and they had taken over Dis. Hell had suffered greatly with my reincarnation. If Devastation, an earth-bound mercenary, had been given an army, I wondered who had been appointed my position.

“Jester, come.” I walked past the demon and straight toward the south wall of the city.

I didn’t turn around to make sure Jester was following. I could feel him. If he had disobeyed me, well, there was no way that he could. It wasn’t in a demon’s nature to disobey, unless they were a Conterent. In that case, Diabulus and myself were the only ones who could control a Conterent.

When I reached the wall, I placed my left hand on the black stone and my eyes closed briefly and reopened. I stood there, waiting, until Jester stepped through the wall.

It was the same effect as when I had gone through the crushing air with Hannah, except that this time there wasn’t any pain. I couldn’t follow Jester of my own free will because I was being guided, although this time I knew where I would end up.

Coming out of the wall, we entered into Judecca. My feet walked on top of a frozen lake and beneath the surface, sinners lie frozen. These sinners were traitors to their benefactors. Contorted in different positions, these traitors were frozen for all eternity.

Scattered along the ice the entire way through Judecca lie single mounds of frozen lava. They held no purpose, but that of punishment.

In the midst of our path ahead hovered a mist-shrouded shape. Walking through the fog, my human heart leapt in my throat with fear, but my Keeper confidence and strength kept that fear at bay. This was an opportunity in more than one fashion.

Having an audience with Diabulus could allow several things to happen. Most importantly, I could barter for Hannah’s life, as well as Ellie and Bill’s. Then I could figure out how to control the Conterents once more. It shouldn’t be too difficult, but I needed the information only Diabulus held. I was the only one he would give it to.

Stepping into his presence was intoxicating. There was nothing like the experience in all the worlds. Diabulus was enormous. He towered over every other creature in Hell and then some. There was no way to measure him. His size was unexplainable.

He is the ultimate punisher. No one can compare to his methods. This level of Hell holds the most dishonorable men in the history of mankind.

Diabulus has three heads and therefore, three mouths. His left and right mouths eternally eat Brutus and Cassius, the conspirators to Julius Caesar’s assassination. They are stuck in feet first and in constant agony, yet never allowed to die. His middle mouth constantly chews on Judas, Jesus’ betrayer. Judas is placed head first into Diabulus’ mouth with only his legs free to kick the air that will not save him. He is constantly torn to shreds, yet never allowed an end to the suffering.

Agony rips through the lowest level of Hell through the betrayals’ agony and screams, and also through the constant wind by Diabulus’ wings, which keep the Cocytus lake frozen beneath him. Any human who traveled down here would be killed almost instantly if they were not in favor with the gods, although, pure fright might kill them first.

I looked up at Diabulus and then back to Jester. “Thank you for your guidance.”

Agony leapt through his face and seemed to engulf him from within. He tried not to scream, tried to keep his pain at bay, but it soon become too much. There was no use in trying to control it when it was designed to control you.

Jester’s hands caught fire out of nowhere and his tough skin began to melt into burning lava. There was no stopping it now. Diabulus had shown his wrath and there was no going back.

No one was allowed to disrupt Diabulus’ chamber except his right-hand demon and the gods. There were other ways to communicate with Diabulus, but that was impersonal and usually only occurred with an unimportant situation. This was an important situation and Diabulus had been expecting me.

Jester slowly melted to the black soil underfoot along with his screams. It was not befitting a demon to scream, but in this instance it was almost expected. Besides, now he had endured his rightful punishment for the wrong doings he had committed against my command before my reincarnation.