Bits and Pieces: April Edition

Picture/Photo Find:

Something I Did:

Yesterday I traveled to Hays, Kansas, for my last ever robotics competition. Because I'm fifteen, I have outgrown the welcome of the FLL robotics team, and so I can't compete next year.

Being with my friends all day definitely kept me from feeling too nostalgic, but at the end of the day, as they dropped me off at my house, I couldn't help but feel a little sad (also, I was emotionally compromised because we had just been watching the saddest part of Life of Pi, when my friend Erin paused it to dump me off).

One of the best parts of the tournaments is that you are surrounded, literally surrounded, by geeks and nerds alike. They crush you with their nerd-dom, something that is both familiar and comforting. You can talk about Loki freely with a group of people who understand his character development. You can show people your Figment page because they actually know what Figment is and are interested in reading your stuff. Really, it was great.

I plan to help my robotics coach next year and maybe attend the competitions with them, but it won't be the same--not only because I won't be part of the team, but also because I won't be competing. I'll be helping.

There's a certain part to growing up that really slays me, and it's that the bigger you grow the more responsible of things you are, and the less fun things you get to do.

A Writer Thing:

The short story: I submitted my first story o a lit mag.

The elongated story: After shuffling my feet and dreaming of the days when I would finally grow some balls and write a cover letter so I could send some short stories out to literary magazines, I finally took the initiative, sat down, and wrote it.

Then, I carefully submitted a short story to a small, online magazine called Lightning Cake.

Their description:

Lightning Cake is a tiny zine of illustrated speculative flash fiction. New electrifying bites published weekly. Cut yourself a slice and chomp in.

I thought it sounded like just my cup of tea, so I submitted. Plus, it does not hurt in the least that I know the editor from Figment, and I am very comfortable submitting my stuff to her. It has been a learning experience, and even when I get rejected I will be grateful for the experience.

A Song for Your Ears:

You may remember a few months ago in this one Bits and Pieces post, where I told you that I watched a lot of these anime movies by a guy named Hayao Miyazaki. Hoping to gain yet another layer from these movies, I started listening to the scores from them.

My favorite is from Howl's Moving Castle. Have a listen; I like the violin parts most of all, because they move and take the melody, but I think the piano bits are especially breathtaking. 

What am I Doing Tonight?

Well, tonight is my high school's prom. My sister Hope will be going with her boyfriend (also known by close friends as "Rhett"), and I will be staying at home, dreaming of the day when I will have a boyfriend--or at least a friend--to attend with. 

Perhaps I will do some reading.  

Fathomless: A Book Review.

*SPOILERS ABOUND. MUST I CONTINUE TO TELL YOU TO PROCEED IN CAUTION, IF AT ALL?*

Way yonder, back in July, you may remember that I wrote a book review on Jackson Pearce's Sweetly. Recently, another book in the series came out, and so I decided to read it because though I did complain and whine unnecessarily on the Sweetly review, I actually did like it.

Fathomless is a retelling of The Little Mermaid, by Hans Christian Anderson. I could catch very subtle hints that this was a retelling (like in the fact that when the mermaid, Lo, walked on land she'd cut her feet on imaginary knives and she'd start bleeding--and in the old fairy tale it was like there were knives in the little mermaid's feet when she walked), and I thought that it was very well done.

I couldn't put this book down. It was compelling, and the plot moved fast, and the pacing was SO much better than with Sweetly. There were a few imagery problems, like she had trouble just honestly telling us that Lo had feet, and not a tail. And so I spent the first 10,000 words or so thinking, "That's great but how did she get up on land like that with a tail?"

As I was expecting, this book is very... strange, for lack of a better word. The mermaid-type creatures blend well enough with the fenris (the werewolves, if you will). It didn't bother me, since I'm naturally strange. 

... AND THEN we get to the part about the shells, which did not fit in at all in Sweetly. But then they did, because they made sense suddenly.

The romance was PHENOMENALLY improved. It was almost refreshing. I was caught between which girl the dude was going to choose, because I couldn't decide which one he liked more. I thought that he acted a little sleezy, though he was cute. I like the name Barnaby, by the way (this sentence will make more sense when you read the book. If you do).

I definitely recommend this book to anyone who's looking for a good story. But first you must read both Sisters Red and Sweetly, as this is a series book and half of the components won't make sense unless you read in order. 

Romance: 3.5 stars

Creepy Aspects: 5.0 stars

Plot Hole Explanations From Sweetly: 5.0 stars

 Overall: 4.5 stars

Well done, Jackson! You're up a star. Let's hope your retelling of The Snow Queen is stunning. I'm looking forward to it!

New Writing Projects (ish).

*WARNING: The following content is full of insufferable whining and jerky behavior. I tried to put all the worst parts in the footnotes, but I failed. BE WARNED AND PROCEED WITH CAUTION*

So back in April I wrote a post on this blog about all of the stories that I was currently working on. Only one of those books is currently still on my work list, and so I thought I'd update it a bit, just so you're in the loop. Because I love all of you guys.

But before I begin, I'll just start right off and say that I didn't crop the photos like in the last post, because I post these stories on Figment and I can just crop them there, without the photos becoming pixelated and grainy--if that makes any sense.

The quotes underneath the covers are from the synopses-es found on my Figment page.

1. The Glass Girl

The font used are Bell MT and Sunshine in my Soul.

The world has turned to glass. Everything is smooth, colors pinks and whites and lavenders. Lea collects small people, making terrariums for them back at her house.

This is my Camp NaNo project, and it's the story of a girl (and also a boy) who live in the world after it's all turned to glass. It's set in Topeka, Kansas (with a smattering of Colorado Springs), because I've been to both places and so the setting is natural to me.*

In this novel there are skeletons and magic and tea and the color orange, automatons, miniature people, and also a fair amount of reading. 

I think this book has a lot of potential--more potential, than, say, that awful book I wrote last year that was a dystopian. **

I also think this book is odd, to say the least. It's definitely different (as in, the plain girl does not fall in love with any hot, perfect guys), and so I'm wondering if it will ever be published. I'm not willing to make it any more boring than it already is--it's set in Kansas, land of the flat and dry--and so maybe I'll have to self publish it or something. But I'd rather not do that, and so I'm leaning on the traditional way.

Either way, I want to see this baby in print. Hardcover form, please.

2. Mermaidens

The font used is Bell MT.

Living in the seaside town of Klarine, there is a girl named Charlotte, and she holds a deep secret: she is a mermaid.

Yes, I was working on this book in the last post I made about my current works in progress, except for the fact that the plot has changed so dramatically from the last draft you couldn't recognize the similarities in it (also, the cover changed. Here's a gold star for noticing!). I will now list quite a few things that went wrong while writing the first 8K words of the first draft.

• The twin sisters were hard to write, even though they've sort of remained in the current draft. But they did seem to hate each other before I scrapped them up. Plus, they were so different from each other. One was shy and cried a lot (my main character) and the other was outgoing, snarky, and downright rude. 
• On the topic of my main character, I'd like to add that she wasn't strong enough to carry the story on her shoulders. She was far too fragile, and in about the fifth chapter, I broke her (there will  now be a future blog post on how you can break your characters). Her name was Leila, if that gives you a hint as to her character.
• Too much happened in too little time. 
• The pacing was terrible. 

And now, a list of things that stayed the same throughout:

• Calvin's name--and, for the most part, his character. Only, he's considered insane by everyone... except he actually isn't.
• Minos, the big black draft horse. 
• Water. There's definitely water, somewhere. 

 

3. The Sheep Watch

The font used is Garamond.

Leonard watches for wolves one night while tending to his sheep. But when he hears a noise in the apple orchard, he follows it and meets the incredible Penny Keaton.

The Sheep Watch is a contest entry for the Defy the Dark contest, and it's about a boy named Leonard who falls asleep while watching his flock of sheep one night, and when he wakes up he meets this girl named Penny, who is intentionally a Manic Pixie Dream Girl (a pretty, young, perfect girl who is put into the story to alter the course of a man's life. See: Margo in Paper Towns and Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451).

It's probably one of the lighter things I've written; the death count tolls in at only one victim! A huge success!***

Plus, it's finished. So I'm not exactly working on it anymore. I figured I'd just announce that it exists or something. 

Footnotes:

* Mom, you may remember that I paid an awful lot of time trying to spot the top of the Capitol building while passing through Topeka on our way to the book signing. I consider this "novel research." I've noticed that there are a lot of trees in that city, though--trees that I sort of forgot about while writing the first 30K words. REVISION TIME.

** And speaking of dystopian... this new book is not one of those. Not. Yes, it is, for the most part a post-apocalyptic novel. But it does not take place in the future, and there aren't any guns or knives or swords in it--and there is also no instance where an incredibly hot boy falls in love with an average, plain girl *cough cough Divergent and Delirium cough cough*.

*** Of course, this sentence has led to a ten-minute long math problem while I deduce how many characters I kill per story, on average. The grand total: 5.3. I had to guesstimate for my novels that I haven't finished yet, but I believe the number is pretty accurate.

The Lawrence Book Signing.

I don't think I've mentioned I was going to do this on the blog yet, but I attended a book signing a few days ago in Lawrence. It was for The Merry Sisters of Fate--aka, Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff. They were releasing a new book called The Curiosities, and it is basically an anthology of short stories. You can check out their work here. 

My mom graciously agreed to drive me six hours to the event, for which I'm very grateful. At the signing there were quite a few girls there, and a few sort of like me--namely, they want to be published authors.

During the question portion of the event I got to ask them a couple of questions (and one of which was on my mind since I finished The Scorpio Races last November), which was awesome. What I liked most about it--aside from the fact that they defaced one of Jackson Pearce's books for me--was the fact that they were normal, and appearance-wise they looked just like authors should look, in my opinion: two or three years behind on fashion trends and odd looking. 

Well, alright, two of them fit that category. Maggie was pretty cool. 

But they were talking about stuff I'd only discussed with some of my internet friends! There were NaNoWriMo people there in the audience and it was awesome. We talked about Writers' Block and query letters and character building and settings and plot and everything. My head's still reeling from it. 

This is me looking sufficiently awkward with her.

I was shaking while in line  for the signing part. I mean, they were real authors. Two of them had made the NYT Bestsellers list. One of them had written some of my favorite books. And I met them.

Definitely worth a six hour drive.

Penguins Don't Let Their Plots Simmer.

It's my 92th post, and I feel that we know each other well enough for me to finally show you what I actually write about. All of my following works are fiction, and the covers were made by me (except for the last one. That one was designed by the amazing Fena).

1. Mermaidens.

 

Believe me when I tell you that I just spent the past ten minutes making this cover, specifically for this post. So I expect you to feel like a privileged blog reader, okay? Because I like to spend my time entertaining you. 

......

Also, I just needed a cover for it.

So anyway, this story is about two twin sisters, whose mother was killed by mermaids when they were younger--and their father runs the country they live in.  And there is a slight infestation of she-fish living in the lakes and streams around the country, but the dad blatantly ignores it, in favor of a new healthcare bill. 

There's also a boy named Calvin, who has a pretty decent role in the book. 

Remember when I said in the last few paragraphs that the country has a slight pest problem? Well, they kill young women. And Calvin's job is fishing these girl's bodies out of the lakes. Creepy, I know, but I just love it.

He also has a big black horse named Minos--which makes me like Calvin slightly more.

2. Space Girls

I definitely (take note of how I spelled that) love this storyline--but if I didn't love it, I wouldn't continue writing, would I? I don't think I would. There are quite a few things in this world that I finish, and a story I don't enjoy writing in my free time sadly isn't one of them.

This novel is about three girls and a smattering of alien men-type creatures, and love, and pickled vegetables. 

That's all I'm going to say, because if you look on my about page, you will find the link to go read it somewhere else online. Keep in mind that there are only a few chapters yet, and that it's not finished.

Thank you.

3. Flowerhead.

I also just made this cover for this blog post.

I swear, the things I do for you guys. 

I started writing this story yesterday, a few hours before bed. It's my intention that this piece will only be a few thousand words long, and I expect to have it completely finished and up on Figment by the end of this month. 

So far it's about a boy named Liam, who's a writer. He's writing about a girl with flowered hair.

And that is all I have. I'm only about a thousand words in so far, and I'm still developing the characters and setting and foreshadowing and minor stuff like that. I think it's going to be fun to watch play out. 

4. First Spark.

I've put this novel on hold right now, while I write Space Girls and Flowerhead. I can't wait to return to it, later, but for now, I have no plot in mind for it, so I'm letting the story simmer, like one of my very favorite authors Jackson Pearce said I should do last week at the liveshow. Her being an author, I decided to take her advice and just let it sit.

It's a dystopian about these creatures who have killed almost the entirety of the human population. The point of view is from one of the few thousand remaining humans; a teenager named Tessa. 

I'd tell you more, but as I said earlier, it has no plot yet, and I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. 

So yeah. Those are all of my current projects. As you can see, I've thrown myself head-first into the pile of shredded ideas that is my mind, and I've pulled out several stories that might or might not work. 

Who knows?

The Scorpio Races

I haven't gotten around to mangos yet, so I figured that I'd start off the new year with a book review. Maybe later tonight I'll do the reflecting part of 2011, but right now, I just want to say some stuff about this book.

It's The Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater.


I have to admit that I totally judge books by their covers. If a book has an awful cover and I've never even heard about it, then I won't even look twice at it.

The Scorpio Race's cover really turned off the 'I WANT TO TOUCH IT' button for me. I know that several hours were spent on this cover, but it still... err. Shiver (oh gosh, I didn't mean to do that).

But I'd heard really good things about this book--and, it's Maggie Stiefvater. She wrote the Shiver series (and now do you see where I messed up in the last paragraph?).

So I read it, and I was instantly hooked. I flew through the pages like lightning. Or, as fast as the Capaill Aisce, the water horses in the book.

I seem to be saying this a lot about books lately, but this book has a really crummy ending. It was sad, and it nearly broke my heart. I cried.

I also screamed at the book during the middle.

"NO! NO! Maggie, why? Why? WHY?"

I seriously hated the author when I was screaming at her book. She made things so... hard. She mixed up my feelings for the book. What I felt about the characters, who I was supporting more than the other. 

What I've got to say, now that the book is over?

The cover suits it.

Even though it still stinks.

Keep writing, Maggie Stiefvater.