Lick Me! I Taste Of Awesomesauce!!!

Oh my God! Oh my God! What the fuck just happened? 

-Wesley [after being scooped into Fox's car] from the movie "Wanted"

I'll tell you what just happened.  I actually reached a goal.  THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!!!

Booya!  Raise the roof!  Check out my happy dance!  Awww yeah!!!

Granted this is just the first month, but holy oh my good gravy with a side order of amazing awesomeness!  I did it!  I didn't think I'd be able to, but I did.

My goal was to update all my story blogs as of 2011 and then start keeping them relatively current after that.  I was having problems with the last story blog for 2011 and finished the story for it earlier this month, but after that, I had no idea how to go about updating stuff or what order to do it in.

Then the process just sort of came to me... and I started writing.

Each story blog was its own monster, and since it'd been a while, I had to go back and take notes on what happened and who people were and what everything looked like.  Each story blog was like that.  I had previously blogged that I didn't think I'd be able to update all the story blogs each month, and I totally expected to maybe do half or less.  (Aside from this main blog, there are twelve blogs to update - eleven story, one not-so-story.)

And then I posted the last one a little while ago, and I realized...

HOLY SHIT!  I DID IT!

I'm trying not to get too excited, but woo hoo!  I feel mighty proud of myself.

So starting where I left off from the last post in regards to what I've written...

Two days ago, I posted the next segment to Real Life I (just) Made Up titled An Unexpected Visitor (which was last updated October 6th last year).

The day after that, I wrote Part Nine for Nedea (which was last updated October 8th of last year) as well as a blog description (which I don't think is very good) and toyed around with the blog layout.  Still think it needs something.

I also wrote Part Ten of Enyo (which was last updated October 9th of last year).

And then just a little while ago, I posted another review on Everything At Least Once for Rockstar Coconut Water (which was last updated December 7th of last year).

After I realized I had updated them all, I immediately thought I need to do it all over again, but a part of me decided not to.  That instead I would just keep it as a monthly thing (this blog being the only one that I could update as often as I wanted), and in the meantime work on other things.

Like my novels.

So far "Chloe" has been on my mind though I keep wondering what "Abby" and "Luke" are up to.  Most of my stories usually have a female as the main character... like with "Chloe" and the rest of the characters in the story, although important, are more supporting than in the "Abby/Luke" story.  The two of them share the spotlight in a sense, but in reality, "Luke" is essentially the main character. 

I find it interesting.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some novel writing done before I go back to updating the story blogs.  I've been writing a lot lately, and I'm hoping that the creative flow continues at this pace.  It's nice going to bed and your last thoughts before falling into the black are of your stories and where you can take them.

Still, with the story blogs, I have already gone and made an updated list of all the blogs and the dates they were last updated and then, like before, put them in number order.  I will be updating them the same way, oldest to most recent, but I won't start until (at least) February 1st.

Oh yeah.  This year is Leap Year.  Neat!

Per my revised list, the first story blog I will be starting with is Results of the Writers' Wheels-O-Wonder which ALWAYS proves to be the most difficult since it's from my brother's manual spinner prompt generator.  After my last update, I consulted the spinners and got my new prompt so I can already have it in the back of my head for next month.  As it is, I kind of have an idea of what to do, but I'm trying to keep it simmering on the back burner of my noggin until I'm ready for it.

I'm honestly expecting some lag in my writing stamina in the coming months, and who knows?  It might start next month.  And it is a shorter month even with the extra day this time around.  I'll keep whatever I can crossed in order to keep this up.  I'm taking it as a sign that things will turn around for me, and this year will be better than times before.

Anyway... here's hopin'!

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Insomnia's A Bitch, But At Least It's Raining

I'm not the greatest; I'm the double greatest.  Not only do I knock 'em out, I pick the round. 

-Muhammad Ali

Sitting in my room (chillin' like a villain) and drinking a couple beers while I listen to the rain.

Ahhh yes, the rain.  It makes me happy. 

You know what also makes me happy?  Writing!  (And I've been doing a lot of that lately.)

So when I finished my Jacob story about a week ago, I immediately thought It's time to start on my other writing.  Trouble was... I couldn't decide on where to start (and I REALLY wanted to).

My solution?  I made a list of all my story blogs and the date of the last post.  Since then, I've been working my way from oldest to most recent.

First up was Stoically Challenged, the last post being June 28th of last year.  Alithea S. had started posting homework assignments again and told Kathy W. to tell me that I was slacking.  (I was, but it's good to get a little friendly poke every now and then.

Yeah, I know how that sounds.  Anyway, moving on...

I'm behind on a lot of her other homework assignments, but I got into the habit of not doing hers in order so even though I got the new assignment, I ended up doing an older one and four days after "Jacob", I wrote "Rest Stop" which is a continuation of "Out For A Drive" which I thought just going to be some random one-shot kind of thing, but nope.  I wrote more... and even gave the chic a name.  (Go ahead and applaud if for nothing else than to make my ego feel loved.)

Also on the same day, I posted another segment for Sanya (last updated on June 29, 2011) called "A Story To Tell".  I had to go back, as with other story blogs, and take some quick notes to remind myself what people looked like and their names and all that.

I'm pretty fly for a slant-eye!  (LOL!  It just popped into my head and made me laugh so I wrote it.  And if you don't like it?  Tough!  I'm Asian.  Get over it!)

The next story blog I tackled was a boy, a girl, and a line... (which was last updated on July 13, 2011).  This story blog is similar to Stoically Challenged except for some reason, I feel the need to do the assignments in order (all of which I got back in the Spring of 2010).

See?  Slacker!  *grin*

The next prompt up on the writing block came from my friend Chris C. who gave me the very first prompt that started this story blog in the first place - "The Assignment".  The rule was if you already gave me a prompt, and I wrote a story for it, you could give me another one (if you wanted to). 

And so he did.

The prompt alone sounded rather science fiction B-movie, and I had originally meant to make it as campy and cheesy as possible... but then things took a turn (not sure for the better or worse), and a day later, I ended up with "Not In the Moo'd". 

If your brain melts out of your ear and your eyeball slide out... blame him.

On the same day, I posted "Romantically Hopeless" on The Curly Muse (which I hadn't posted to since September 22, 2011).  I had actually written a good chunk of the poem the night before in a stream of consciousness kind of thing.  I figured since I hadn't written a poem in a while, why not post that?  It felt like something was missing, but I tweaked it in the end.  I'm not all that sure it's any good, but I like it.

Number Five on this countdown goes to Della.  The last post was from October 2, 2011, and a day later after my poem and "I blame Chris C. if this sucks" story, I posted Part Three of this story.

The following day I posted Part Nineteen to The Strange Adventures of Princess Blue (which I last posted on October 3, 2011). 

I'm hoping it makes my "Girlfriend" Kathy W. happy.  (Perhaps I'll make it into a children's book someday... maybe... perhaps... I have no idea.)

The day after I posted more "strange adventures" for Princess Blue, I posted Part Five of Tales of the Unemployed and Unloved.  (In case you can't tell, I started writing this story whilst depressed.  Ain't life grand?  It hands you shitty lemons, and you make stories out of them.)

Where's my beer?

Found it.

(gulp, gulp...)  Ahhhh, refreshing.

Where was I?  Ah yes, I was where I was now... which is working on something for Real-Life I (just) Made Up.  This story blog had originally started out to be something completely different and is now kind of like "Tales..." but not.  As it is, I'm trying not to have anything weird happen in that story since everything else seems to have some odd angle or twist in it (for those familiar with my writing know what I'm talking about), but it's really hard.  For some reason, my brain wants to take reality and shake it up a bit.  Right now, when I think of that story, it makes me think of Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events". 

I keep thinking of the first chapter of the first book "Bad Beginnings":

If you are interested in stories with happy endings, you would be better off reading some other book. In this book, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning and very few happy things in the middle. This is because not very many happy things happened in the lives of the three Baudelaire youngsters. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire were intelligent children, and they were charming, and resourceful, and had pleasant facial features, but they were extremely unlucky, and most everything that happened to them was rife with misfortune, misery, and despair. I'm sorry to tell you this, but that is how the story goes.

Granted my story is about a girl named Arwyn and not the three Baudelaire orphans, but I get an "unhappy ending" feeling about Arwyn and her story just the same.  For some reason when my brain entertains the notion of making the story weird and fantasy horror.  It's like she can't be happy or happy things can't happen to her if I keep it in reality.  There has to be some strange otherworldly reason she's suffering and once she slays the dragon or finds the magical tome or save some kingdom from an age old curse... then, and only then, will she find true happiness and happiness will be thrust upon her.

Did anyone else read the subtext of that bit as "the writer's got issues and needs serious help"?  Or was that just me?

Anyway...

I have three more story blogs (one not so story blog) to write something for, and everything will be all caught up as of this month.

Wow!  I'm kind of excited. 

Hello sense of accomplishment.  Wanna buy me a drink?

I know I've babbled about this before, but it'd be nice if I had followers/subscribers/whatever.  There are days when I post something, and I feel a little lonely and sad since I know only a few people read the stuff I write and they leave comments on Facebook or Google+ or Twitter where I post notices saying "Hey!  Come read this thing I wrote!"

Oh to have followers.

Oh to have a writing job.

Oh to have a job.

Anyway, enough daydreaming. 

I've taken my notes on the next story blog and have a few ideas, but I have some plans this weekend so I might not get to it until a few days from now.

Or if my insomnia takes hold again (as it has been A LOT lately), maybe sooner than that.

All righty.  Time to plot... and (maybe) sleep.

Later my lovelies!

Have Goodness!
Rae

Story Done. Sore Thumb. Now What?

There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over, the wound is closed and healed, done with.
-Harry Crews, novelist and playwright (b. 1935) 

Well hello and happy new year to one and all my lovelies out there!

I thought that was quote was appropriate seeing as this story pained me to write it.  Pained me in the sense that every time I tried to work at it, it just sat there and laughed at me like some childhood bully that just spilled my chocolate milk all over my dress.

Or something like that.

Okay, perhaps that's just a skosh of an exaggeration, but you get my meaning.

Also (most likely from working on this story so much) yesterday my right hand started aching - specifically the joint area below my thumb up to the knuckle and also the meaty part of my palm.  I'm pretty sure it's from typing as well as moving the minibook around (lifting it out of the way of the cat and all).  I finished editing and posting yesterday as well as blogging all this with an achey thumb.  You never realize how much you need your thumb until it's taken away from you... well kinda taken away.

Oh the suffering I do for my art. ;-P
Moving on...

My brother's random "Wheel" prompts kill me.  I had an interesting idea with "Antonina", but what started out as a cool idea turned into "Holy crap!  What am I going to do with this?  How am I going to end it?"  With that story, I felt that I started off strong (I liked the violence I wrote in the beginning and the "fight scenes" thereafter), but I didn't feel it was really any good... at least the latter half (especially the ending).

Now with "Jacob"... my original goal was to finish it before the end of last year, but due to frustrations and creativity blockage mixed in with the holidays, insomnia and catching the plague... I ended up postponing my original goal to January 2012.  It would have been nicer if I finished it within a few days of the new year, but damn that plague.  Hacking and wheezing and sniffling and body aching... kind of makes it a little difficult to function.

I most likely got this from my family when I went to Fresno to visit for the holidays.  My brother and his family seemed to be passing it around to each other.  My mother had visited them and got it, too, though hers turned into pneumonia before I left.

During my drive home, I felt a little tickle in my throat.  The next day I visited ye ole drugstore and loaded up on meds.  (That's my way!  I'm a big medicator.)  I don't get terribly sick all that often, but when I do, I want it to last as short as possible.

In any case, I'm feeling better now.  I killed the sickness after a few days, but I still have a lingering sniffle and cough.  (The body ache is now from my upcoming bout with powerloss.)

Meaning... sometimes I hate being a girl.  Once a month I wish I could just scoop out my cervix with a melon baller and put it in a mason jar for five days until it's over.

Anyway, back to what I was talking about before.

It took me a while to get the "Jacob" story going.  No beginning felt right.  Then I found one that wasn't terribly formed well, but I felt I could work with it so then I just continued on my merry little way, making notes as I went, and then like fertile bunnies the pages kept multiplying. 

On the day before Christmas Eve (the day I was to venture to the land of Fresno), I posted on my Facebook my progress with a mild question of curiosity:

16 pgs & a possible ending. Huzzah? O_o How many pgs is the longest short story? #amwriting  

For some reason when I think "short story", I think "short".  Granted I've read from short stories that seemed to never end, but I guess when you love an author and a story so much, you don't want it to, and you get so lost up in it that you forget you're reading a short story and not a novel.

In response to my question, my friend Jonathan S. (aka Jaquas) posted this:

From the internets, so take with a grain of salt:
# Novel: a work of 40,000 words or more
# Novella: a work of at least 17,500 words but under 40,000 words
# Novelette: a work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words
# Short story: a work of under 7,500 words

My other friend June B. had commented that the longest short story she had seen was 30 pages.  The longest she'd written was 24.


I was at 16 with a possible ending in my mind.  I just had to knit the words from page 16 to the end... wherever that would be.


And just so you know, I don't knit well.


Out of mild curiosity from what Jaquas posted, I did a word/character count, and proceeded to have this little chat with him via the post.


Me: Jaquas: I just counted 8300+ words/44+k characters... and I'm still not done. (I just feel like I'm rambling at this point.) #sigh
Jaquas: So you're at Novelette status :)
Me: Oh dude, am I? Or maybe I'm just at bullshit status? LOL!
Jaquas: Well, yeah, you're always at bullshit status though. :P
Me: Someone's gotta keep up with you. ;-P

And there you have an example of me and my friends.  (Cue Randy Newman's "You Got A Friend In Me")

I purposely did not bring the minibook with me over the holidays since I didn't think I would get much work done.  Also, I had some cuteness I needed to play with.

my adorable niece Bella in a new Christmas dress

Like I always do, I brought a notebook with me and ended up filling my moments of insomnia with some writing.  I worked on Jacob and amazingly enough one of my novels (Chloe).


My Facebook comment to the short story thread on December 29th:


I handwrote some stuff at my mom (thanks Insomnia... you bitch). Now I need to add it to the monster of whatever this story has become. Oh dear! O_o

January 3rd:

Finished typing up what I wrote while in Fresno. At 23 pages and at 11k+ words. *headdesk*

This short story was going to kill me.  Plus it was getting more difficult to get it done and out of my head since my other children were wanting Mommy to play with them.  I had made a goal that Monday would be the day that I would finish my story, Tuesday would be editing, and Wednesday would be posting.  Now if you follow the rule "It's not tomorrow until the sun comes up" then I did post it yesterday.  When I posted it on my various social networking places (Facebook, Twitter, Google+), I added an author's note (like I do) as well as this comment:

17,480 words and 33 pages, I give you... crap!

Looking at the word count now, per Jaquas's internet findings, I was 20 words away from a novella.  

So I wrote a novelette.

...

...

...

Fascinating.  

The author's note explains my feelings toward the piece.  Granted I wrote it late... hella late.  I refused to go to bed until I finished.  (Oh dear gawd.  Writing's hard!  But I love it so.  LOL!)

My friend Jery T. commented on my Facebook posting "Oh, I bet it's not as bad as you think."  My reply back?  "You obviously haven't read it. ;-P"

So now to continue on with my goal of upkeeping the various story blogs I have.  Most likely I will not be able to write something for every story blog every month (sorry kids and readers), but I will try my hardest.

I still entertain the notion of vlogging one of these days.  I had thought "I'll do it at the beginning of the new year."  But then the plague said, "I don't think so," and took not only beautiful and enchanting stage presence (NO ONE looks good when they're sick) as well as my voice (there were times I sounded more like a dude than I usually think I do giving Barry White a run for his money, and then there were times where I thought I could have subbed for the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin.)


Oh well... maybe some day... when I grow the babbalones to do it.  (That was a reference my Seester would get.)


Anyway, I posted the story yesterday.  I don't think anyone has read it yet.  Oh well.  I'm not sure anyone even reads these posts or any of my stories.  Well, I know some of my friends do, but my secret desire is to have subscribers and a readership, but that'll take some time, I guess.  Or maybe it'll never happen.


But there I go.  Being shiny happy positive again.  Why?  Because that's how I roll.


All right.  I reached my other goal of blogging about this before I head out for the night.  My friends have moved into a new place, and we're going to listen to our SoCal friends' internet radio show Dusty's World at the Hall of Justice (aka their new abode).  I need to run some personal errands, grab some grub for myself as well as some apple juice for the Jager tonight, and I'm good to go.


Later my lovelies!


Have Goodness!
Rae