I feel like I'm going to explode

My aunt and uncle from Texas decided, in the generosity of their hearts, to take everyone out to dinner. And since they lived in Brazil for many years, they love Brazilian food. So we went to Rodizio Grill. I had never been before, so I was exactly sure what to expect. I didn't expect the best meat I have ever tasted, and I certainly didn't expect the way that it was brought to the table.

There were servers who brought skewers of meat, asking everyone if they wanted some, sometimes three or four servers at a time. When someone said they wanted some, they would saw the meat off the skewer and drop it on the plate. We were there for about an hour, and I have never eaten that much in all my life. It was amazingly good, and yet at the same time, I ended up with a little bit of a stomach ache. I'm sure it will take days for my stomach to recover.

I had a great time thought.

Family, family, everwhere

I love having extended family over. I have my favorite aunt living next door, which has been great for the last two years, and right now, for Christmas, we have maternal grandparents over, and just now one my uncle and aunt from Texas has come to visit, for my mother's birthday this week.

It's great. There's love everywhere, everyone is talking, and there have already been a round of hugs, with another forthcoming when the cousins get here.

I sure wish that this could happen more often!

An interesting observation

I have just realized that my most interesting stories/ideas, have all come from two places: Either they have been stewing in the back of my mind for at least three years, giving them time to ferment and become as great as they need to be, or they come to me in a dream.

I love my dreams. They tend to be a little (okay, a lot) on the weird side, and they almost always have a cute/gorgeous guy in them. Sometimes it's someone I know, either personally (though that only happens rarely) or from a movie or TV show, and sometimes it's someone I have never seen in my life. Not even in my writing.

Most of my dreams lately have been about relationships. I'm sure that tells you a little about what I have on my brain right now. Sometimes the relationships are really cute, sometimes they are heartbreaking, and sometimes they are stressful. It's always been interesting to wake up, remember the dream, and try to understand why I dreamed about that particular thing/relationship/man.

My dreams are usually the reason I like to sleep in late, aside from my bed being warm and my room being cold. It always bothers my parents, since I'm stuck living with them right now.

There have been four dreams in particular that I have loved enough to start writing a story based on them. It always takes work to make it all make sense on paper. But once it's down, then I feel so much better.

Technically I have six dreams I had that I wanted to write, but two of them never got written.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a happy Christmas celebration, and that everyone received great gifts like I did!

A Question needing an answer

This one is to all you readers who are also writers. I need help. (This is the part where you all get to learn my bad side... *sigh*) I am really bad at sticking to one task for longer than a few days. I've only managed to stick to something long enough to finish it once, and I'm still working on it now, after an entire year has gone by. I bounce around between genres depending on my mood and what movies/TV I have been watching, and most of the time I get to between 9k-20k and quit, either because I'm bored, or I want to write something else, or I don't like where the plot is going and I can't stick with it long enough to fix it.

There, now you all know what a bad writer I am. I know that'll shatter at least one person's view of me, and you can think less of me, but it's the truth.

Now, here's the question to all you writers. How do you stick to a novel long enough to see it finished? I would like to know your secret, so that I can do the same, and finish something.

I have a friend who says that he doesn't worry about me and my writing career because he 'knows' that I finish things, but I really don't, and I don't know where he got the idea. I've only ever finished one thing, and it's still not novel length. Sure, I've written two short stories and they both went on to win at least second place in contests at my local library, but that's not the same as a novel. And I really want to be able to finish things, so that I can have them move out of the way for my millions of other projects I have lined up in my head.

Okay, I'm done with my ranting and complaining.

Thank you for any help anyone is willing to give.

You should all watch this

A really cool, $300 movie that looks like it came from Hollywood!

Just for Clarity's Sake

I think some people have misunderstood what my new website, IBDB, really is or is supposed to be. You'll remember I talked about it twice recently.

It's not like GoodReads, it was never supposed to be like GoodReads. It's supposed to be like IMDB. You won't get any 'junk' mail unless you want to, and the whole purpose of the website is to add books. For example: I just finished reading Once Bitten, Twice Shy, by Jennifer Rardin, and I put up that as the first book on the site. If this dissuades you from looking at or helping with the website, you have the wrong idea. Everyone is supposed to join and add books, because I haven't read all the books in the world (nor plan to) and I haven't read the same books as anyone else.

So. Let me say again, you are supposed to join and add books with me, not wait until I have added more books myself.

I really am trying to make this a big thing, so that other people can have a chance to avoid reading things they might find inappropriate. I kind of what this to become a national thing, someone that they talk about in the newspapers or on the Yahoo! news page. Not because I want the fame, that would just get in the way of my life, but because I feel that this kind of website should exist like that. It should be just as large as Facebook, or GoodReads, or IMDB.

Okay, I'm done with my shameless advertising.

Thank you

Who ever you are in Pennsylvania who has visited this blog five times, thank you. I don't know who you are, or how you found this site, but thank you. Your visits mean a lot to me.

The same goes to you in California, though you've only visited once. Thank you.

Now I'm going to say, how bizarre. I don't even know anyone in the Penn state... I think I can guess who it is in Cali (Edit, actually I can't. I don't think I know anyone in San Fran...), but Pennsylvania? And Collegeville Penn, no less!

If you read this Collegeville Penn, I would very much like to know who you are!

Edit: I know know who's from Collegeville. Thanks Kateness!

The Internet Book Database, or IBDB

So, recently I've been having a problem finding clean(ish) good books to read. I really like the urban fantasy genre, and most of the books have scenes I don't want to read. So, I've come up with a solution, though it might take some time for it to get big enough to actually work.

I've named it IBDB, or the Internet Book Database. It's similar to IMDB, which I'm sure all of you have heard of, and the main goal of the website is to have a place where you can check to see if a book you want to read has any content that you would find inappropriate. So, feel free to visit IBDB whenever you get a chance and join me in my quest to find a clean book!

My mouth is on fire...

For those of you who have been to Sam Hawk's, (Creselin, I'm looking at you) there is a dish there called Pork Bulgogi. It's very delicious, and I've had it both times I went there. (both times with BFF Balgram) I loved it so much, that a few weeks ago I began craving it, but had no way to get it, because it's 30+ miles south of where I live. So I began researching into making it myself.

I finally was able to make it tonight, along with noodles as a side dish. It wasn't exactly the same as the dish at Sam Hawk's, but it was still really good. A tad on the spicy side, but nothing I couldn't handle. My second youngest brother didn't like it so much because he's not fond of spicy things, but I can't blame him for that.

Then, when I started my second helping the spiciness really started to get to me. By the time I was finished eating that, my mouth was on fire. I really don't remember the Sam Hawk version being this spicy, so the next time I make it I'm not going to use as much chili paste. It was still really good, and as close to authentic asian food I have ever been able to get on my own.

If anyone one wants the recipe, feel free to ask.

Good memories make me laugh

To pass some time today, I went through and read my blog posts from the beginning. *Sigh* So many fond memories and funny stories. It makes me glad that I have this blog, because I would never have remembered half of the stories if I hadn't written them down. Now I have things to tell my grandchildren, when I have them.

Edit: It also made me see how truly immature I have been, as well as shallow... It definitely makes me want to change.

I am going to get something written if it kills me.

May I direct your attention to the new list below the list of online comics. It's pretty self explanatory. I am going to get something written in the next few months. I don't have school so I have all morning to write, at least until I get a job which should be in the next week or so. Plus, both my laptop and my portable DVD player is currently not working, so I don't have a lot of things to distract me from writing. Aside from housework and Christmas stuff, both of which I'm probably going to be doing a lot of. Got to have the house perfect for when Dad and Jet get back!

I digress. I am going to work on the projects listed down below, a little at a time. Slow and steady. Because I really don't want to overwhelm or burn myself out.

I guess I should explain why 'The Ja'Laxam Wars' is listed with such a high wordcount goal. It's actually a series of 15+ books and that number is basically 15x75,000, which is the average length of a publishable novel. And not only those 15 books, but I have several more that I'm going to work on eventually, but didn't want to list them just yet.

Edit: I wrote this before I moved everything around. The list is just below the blog list now. And I also forgot to add that Reality Repair is actually a series of 8 books, hence the 800,000 words.

Well... I'm a little disappointed in myself.

I just read about a girl who is just 2 years older than me and who wrote 1,000,000 words in November. Yes, you read that right, one million words in thirty days. That's roughly 33k+ per day. Kateness, I know you will never read this, but you are my hero.

As for me, I didn't do anywhere near as well. I worked on my planned novel for about 28k and one week before I decided that I hated the characters, didn't like where the plot was heading, and didn't like the fact that while it was a little bit of a fantasy, it was mostly a relationship drama. And I hate relationship drama's unless it's a sideplot underneath an adventure. So I stopped working on that and started on a new novel idea that I had, about a bookseller who gets involved with a murder mystery.

I loved the main character, Jaz Parker, who was smart, funny, and a little bit eccentric, I thought the romantic interest, Samuel, was interesting and had a few quirks of his own that I would have loved to explore, but the story was boring. It was just a straight mystery with no sign of magic or gadgets anywhere.

So I just stopped writing altogether. I was way ahead of schedule, and I figured some time off would help me get my mind back in the game.

But when I started falling behind, I had to start writing something and there was nothing to write. So I wrote stories based on my *really* good dreams that I had been having all month. And I loved them. I wrote up three of them, and each one was a little bit different. One was about an immortal and her lover who were stuck pretending they were just friends while they were working for a monster hunting company. I had some trouble with the last part of that one, because it took a turn for the worse plot wise, and I really didn't like where it was heading. But the beginning is really good. The relationship between the woman and her man was interesting, and how she handled the seperation was heartbreaking.

The next one I wrote was about a woman on vacation with her african american (that part was very important) boyfriend. It was the shortest of the three, and I never actually finished everything I had dreamed about. But it was good, I really liked the boyfriend, and will probably return to this one some day.

The third one I wrote was a lot on the sad, depressing side about a woman who had been kidnapped and thought dead returning to find that her fiance had moved on and got married to someone else. It was heartbreaking and I felt really, really bad for the woman.

I had two other dreams I really enjoyed and wanted to write, but I got bored again and wanted to move on to something else. So I opened a new Word document and just started writing. What came out was a bit of a pleasant surprise. It was about a woman who was a demon/alien/ghost hunter (it's not really clear what she hunts) for hire who has purple energy and her disposal as well as a gun and a sword. There was also a man who was just like her who had been her lover for more than three thousand years before disappearing for a thousand and had just barely returned a few weeks ago, only his energy was a bright gold color. They didn't get along very well because she was angry that he had left, and angry that he had returned because she had eventually gotten over him and was now engaged to a mortal. He had returned to bring her back to their homeland, which is actually underground, because there was a Bringer of destruction coming, etc. It was really interesting, and I think I might do something with that as well.

But I, again, got bored, and couldn't find anything to write. I stayed behind schedule and had to write about 15k on the 30th. That was not fun. I picked random words out of the dictionary and began writing the first thing that came to mind, but I still struggled to make it. I did make it, thank goodness, but I didn't get the same sense of satisfaction I had gotten last year.

After some careful thought of what I had done wrong, I figured out that it was because I was working on all new stuff. Huntress worked last year because the basic idea had been fermenting in the back of my mind for several years. The first novel I tried during November didn't work because it was something I had thought up a few days before the month had started.

I am now kicking myself in the pants for not writing what I had decided on writing back in August. That was a story that had been in my brain for a few years, and I'm sure that it would have pulled me through the entire month.

Oh well, what's done is done.

I'm going to say, though, I'm thinking of doing JulNoWriMo (July Novel Writing Month) or any of the other programs during different months. There are a lot. Not one for every month, but a lot. And since I won't have INSANELY long papers to write and an Oral report to work on during nect semester or the summer, then I will have much more time on my hands. I will have a job by then, but I did NaNo while I was working full time in 2008, so it's definitely possible.

And now I will stop rambling. I really have to post more often so I don't get these overly long posts...

And Now, A Message from Our Sponser

Hey, it's Noble. I'm taking a little break from writing Artemis will be able to tell you all the crazy things that have happened this last week, but until then I would like to let all of my readers whose email I don't have and who *cough* are leaving me for a mission *cough*. The next bit is copied for a letter I sent out to everyone I thought might be interested.

Have you ever gotten tired of picking up a novel that looked interesting and while reading it discovering that it has content that you would rather have not read? I know I have this problem all the time, and I had an idea that would help.

I will assume you all know about the Internet Movie Database. If you don't head over to imdb.com and check it out. I know you all know that movies have a rating system. I propose we do this for books.

My idea is that we create a free wiki (most likely on wikidot.com), and when ever you read a book, you go to the site and post: a quick synopsis, your feelings on the book, possibly objectionable content, and a rating. This would of course take a long time to gather every single book ever written, but if we get a lot of people to help and stay dedicated to this, I know we can do it.

Write me back your feelings and whether or not you would be willing to help. Or if you have questions or ideas.

Noble.

Week Two Update

Artemis here. Noble wants me to tell you that it was all going great. Until the middle of the week when she discovered that she didn't like her characters anymore, and that the murder mystery she was trying to write was turning into a drama. So she stopped working on it and decided to start over on something else. It took her a few days to get started but once she did, she really started to like her new story.
Well, it's a little late, so I'll be back tomorrow to tell you all about her new story.

Week One Update

Artemis again, here to give you an update on Noble's novel. She got very far behind when she didn't write anything on Guy Fawkes Day. Then she didn't write nearly enough the next day, and the next. It wasn't until yesterday that she really pushed herself to start getting back on track. She's still really far behind, but by Saturday, she'll be back on schedule.

One of the reasons, so she tells me, that she got behind was because she's having trouble continuing to like the main characters. The guy, Michael, hasn't been turning out how she wanted him to be, and Stacey doesn't really feel like the kind of person Noble can related to.

Well, I had better get back to helping Noble.

I'm back

Hello, Artemis again. I haven't been around in a year, so I hope you all had a good one. Noble want's me to give you an update on what she's been doing, and how she's been doing.

While she's still looking for a job, she's been working on NaNoWriMo. Again. I swear, that girl is crazy. Last year she wrote 50k. So this year she said, hey, that was easy. So this year, she's going for 100k.

And surprisingly enough, she's right on schedule. She has gotten in the annoying habit of procrastinating until in the evening and than doesn't finish until midnight, but she is getting it done. She currently has 10k, and still has PLENTY of plot left.

She is very hopeful.

Now, here's what she's writing.

Almost as soon as Michael had made sure that the crime scene had been cleaned up a few days later, he was called back to the scene. No one could tell him why, and he vaguely wondered if the CSI's had left something behind on accident.

He had spent the last few days sifting through the evidence that had been handed to him, trying to come up with the identity of the killer, and trying to not think about what Stacey had told him. It didn't fit with his logical view of the world, and while he believed that she had been telling the truth, he wasn't sure if he could accept it.

As soon as he entered the main building at the school, he was accosted by the principal. She was an older woman, probably mid fifties, with silvery gray hair pulled up in a tight bun at the base of her neck. When Michael had first been introduced to her he had wondered if she had been a time traveler from the nineteen twenties.

"Have you found the killer yet?" She asked as soon as she had finished greeting him. He shook his head sadly.

"No, and it's not looking very good. He must have been wearing gloves, because he didn't leave any fingerprints behind, so there's nothing we can use," he answered. She nodded, her lips pressed together so tightly that they disappeared.

"What was the reason for the call?" Michael asked when she didn't say anything more. She flinched, which surprised Michael, then beckoned him towards the common room, where the murder had taken place. She led him across the room, back to where they had first found the body, and Michael's eyes grew wide when he saw what was waiting for him.

There was another body, laying in exactly the same place, in exactly the same position. The stab wounds were all in the same place, the hair had all been chopped off, and her throat had been slit. Michael glanced back at the woman, wondering if he was seeing a ghost of the previous girl, or if this was really a second, identical murder.

Michael paled at the thought of having to deal with a serial killer who moved that fast. He had been lucky, and hadn't had to deal with that kind of case the entire time he was on the force. After a moment of silence, he turned to the principal.

If any of you think that it needs some work, Noble knows. I have told her many times that she needs to change a lot, but she won't listen, saying that she can't change anything until December. That's why I've been banished to here.

Please let me know what you think of this excerpt, so that I can tell Noble and further inflate her already over large ego.

From, Artemis

November is Here

I know I don't post hardly at all here, but I'm giving you fair warning. Artemis is not going to be visiting this year, because she's going to be helping me reach my goal of 100k words by the 30. So I promise to post in December.

Until then, LATER!

Here's me keeping my word

I told you I would post on Tuesday, and here I am, posting on Tuesday.

This is going to be a quick one, because I don't really have anything to say other than I'm going to perform a major overhaul on my novel Huntress, and it's going to be 'perfect' when I'm done.

Well... I keep doing this...

I've never been very good at keeping journals, diaries, blogs... It will get better, I promise! Now that I have a working computer (and plan to be extra careful with it) then I'll be able to do much more, especially with posting here.

It's October, and that means two things in my world. Halloween (yeah!) and time to start getting ready for NaNoWriMo. (double yeah!) The interesting thing, though, is that I'm way too old to go trick or treating, and probably won't get invited to a Halloween party (that requires I actually know people who will throw a Halloween party), and that I've already been planning for NaNo for a few weeks. Now it just gets to be official.

For my dear (deprived) readers who don't know what NaNo is, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It happens every November, and entails writing a 50,000 word novel in thirty days. Insane, right? Right. And wrong, because it is actually the best thing that ever happened to me, when I actually did write a 50,000 word novel last year.

Last year I just wrote my novel. And sometimes procrastinated by lurking at the NaNo website (nanowrimo.org, in case you are interested) where there were so many wonderful things to read instead of writing my novel...

But this year, since I already know that I can do it (fairly easily at that) then I've decided to not be a lurker anymore. I'm going to try to actively participate in the forums at the site, meet knew people, make friends, and read other people's work. It's should be interesting. I'll (hopefully) be working, going to school, trying to finish rewriting last year's novel, writing this years novel, and chatting with people on the web, all the while trying to keep my mom from exploding at me for being a complete hermit.

Thankfully this year we are going to a relative's house for Thanksgiving, which means I don't have to help my mom slave over dinner for two days.

The largest foreseeable problem is that I can't actually decide what I'm going to write. I'm stuck between another YA story (gag me with a fork, please) about a girl who lives in two worlds, the real world (Ohio to be exact) and the fantasy world (Solvair. Similar to Tamora Pierce's creation, Tortall). When she goes to sleep in one, she wakes up in another. The other story I'm torn about, is an adult urban fantasy (gotta love these) about a college student who's part time job is sewing up holes in the fabric of Reality.

I love both story ideas, but I know I can't work on two stories at a time. I tried that last year, and it didn't pan out so well. Hopefully by November 1st, I'll have picked one or the other.

Until then, I'm undecided.

So here's my goal for trying to post on here. I'll try for at least twice a week, on Tuesdays and Thursdays probably, at least until November. Then I'll probably disappear, leaving Artemis in charge again (see last years November posts), though that all depends on how much of a work load we both have.

So, until Tuesday! (which happens to be when my writing group gets together)

The Coolest Pants EVER

Here's a pair of pants I found on DeviantArt, and they are the coolest ever.

She's coming back!

Whee! My best friend is coming back either tomorrow or Saturday! (I have heard that she's coming back on the first, but then on her blog she says that she's leaving tonight, which means she'll be here tomorrow...)

I am so excited! I've missed hanging out with her, and (if she doesn't have anything to do) I'm hoping we'll hang out every day until the 14th, then I move back north. The only thing I'm worried about is she claims she won't have a cell phone, so I don't know how I'm going to get a hold of her when I want to do something...

Parents are annoying

On Sunday I was told that my family were planning a quick trip to the valley I live in to visit their favorite restaurant and the art museum. They invited me along, but since it was being planned for during the time I'm in writing group, I was a little hesitant and didn't make any commitments.

So today when I called them to check on what time they would be at the art museum, so that I could meet them there after writing group, my dad tells me that I have to come to the restaurant, that they had decided that it was going to be the family birthday party for me and my brother, who won't be here for his birthday next month.

Boo! So now I have to choose between a birthday part for me and my writing group and friends, who I haven't seen longer than I haven't seen my family. Great.

My dad suggested I invite the friend I missed the most to the party, and I tried to, but he hasn't answered my text yet, the lameface. So we'll see. I might have to leave my friends and hope they want to do something with me later...

In other news, this week has been exceptionally boring. I haven't done anything but read, writing, go to the library for the internet, and watch movies. While that sounds like fun, its nothing compared to last week. I had a long post for you readers about last weeks adventures, but it got lost for some reason...

But I now have a decent plot for part two of my novel! Whee! I can now start writing it, which I plan to do so today at the writing group, with what little time I'll spend there.

TTFN (Tah Tah For Now! Quote from Tigger)

For information...

... About going to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, see Creselin's blog. She says it all really great, and has the pictures.

In addition to what she said, Chase happened to be someone I already knew, from my year of General Ruckus at the Scera Theater. And at the dinner I also saw AJ and Ben and Ames. (Who I now realize was from my institute class!) AJ and Ben were both assistant teachers for General Ruckus and them and Chase were all in Acting Up, the older group.

I seriously never thought I would see them again.

When Chase heard that I recognized them, he was shocked to learn I was from General Ruckus. His face was really funny. It was great seeing them again.

My Cyborg Name

Get Your Cyborg Name

I found it immensely funny that all the words made sense together.

Here's another one:

Get Your Cyborg Name

And another:

Get Your Cyborg Name

And my last one (Man, I have a lot of names!):

Get Your Cyborg Name

Poor Noble, limited to exploration...

Anyway, you can find this delicious little generator at http://cyborg.namedecoder.com. I highly recommend going. It's really funny.

In other news, I've been reminded that the balloons mentioned in the previous post were purple. (Duh... How come I didn't remember that?)

Why Balgram is my best friend

Let's start from the beginning:

I've never had very many friends, mainly because I've been homeschool most of my life. I didn't have any real friends, not even in my ward, until I was about 12, and even then it was only one. So when I moved to Utah with my family when I was 13, it was a great big shock when almost everyone became friends with me. One girl stood out to me the most.

At the time she was a MiaMaid, which means she was either 14 or 15. I can't remember exactly how old she was. She was always drawing in class, and she made an effort to befriend me, even though I was only a Beehive. I made friends with almost everyone in the ward's young womens group, but she's the one that stuck with me the longest. I still can't figure out why.

During high school, she had a job walking dogs for a neighbor. Sometimes she would invite me along. We would talk about story ideas, we would take each other on adventures (though it was mostly her taking me,) and we would always have fun.

I started going to high school the second semester of my junior, and by this time she was about to graduate (or had already graduated, correct me if I'm wrong). I also had gotten a job working at a local Subway (hated it by the way), and so we didn't hang out all that much any more.

Apparently she felt bad about it, because one day while I was at work she stopped by and said that she had left something for me at my house, and that she had given it to my mom. I thought it was nice of her, and thought about it the rest of work until I got home.

Mom was in her room, and when I asked her about it she handed me three candy bars/small bags of skittles tied together by the string of a balloon. (I can't remember the color any more...) Along with the candy and balloon there was a note, saying that she felt bad about not spending more time with me. I was happy, but thought that was it.

I headed downstairs to my room, and dropped my bag on the floor and didn't even notice anything different about my room for a few seconds. When I did, I was stunned.

The room was covered with treats, oatmeal cream cookies (which to this day remain my favorite store bought cookies), and at least one bag of smoothie flavor skittles, my favorite (did you know they don't sell them anymore?!?) There were more balloons, and it all looked very festive.

I actually cried.

Normally, I'm not a crier. I don't cry at movies (unless I force myself to), I don't cry when I'm in pain, and I really just don't like crying in general. But seeing all that candy and balloons, and realizing how my friend felt about me, made me cry. (happy tears of course)

I don't think I ever told her that. Well, now I did.

Even though I moved away from that home, we still kept in contact, still did things together, and about the middle of last fall, I started hanging out with her every Saturday.

The latest great thing my best friend has done for me? She helped edit my novel. She spent a long time on it, just to help me make it better, time she could have spent doing other things, especially since she's in Japan.

Her name will be the first name in the acknowledgments when my novel is published.

On Fan Fiction

I have to admit to someone, I've been writing fan fiction for the last day or so. Now, before you all judge me like I tend to judge all the other fan fiction writers, I plan to never EVER show the world my fan fiction. I'm writing it for me and me alone.

However, two of my fan fictions have the possibilities, if I change a few names and situations and the like, of being normal stories that won't get me sued if I publish them.

That is what I like about these stories, and why I always return to them every so often. The current one I'm working on is another one of my end of the world stories, with famous people in it, but once it's done I'm changing everyone's names. I'm really liking it a lot, but have a problem that needs to be solved.

As I haven't ever been to medical school, I don't know all the medical terms and such, and I need to know what surgery a person would need if they had a long piece of rebar pierce their middle all the way through. And recovery time, that would be nice as well.

And another character had his legs crushed, not terribly bad, but broken in at least three places, and I don't know how they fix that now-a-days.

So if anyone has the answer to those, or knows where I can find the answers easily, I'd be forever grateful.

In other news/stuff, I actually can't wait until I move back home. How weird is that? I have decided that I don't like living in a room as small as the one I have, and I really don't like living with three other roommates, even if they are really nice. I just want to have an apartment all to my own, but seeing as how I don't have a job right now, I can't afford it. But maybe when I get to Iowa with my family, which I still haven't decided if I'm going or not.

It all depends on whether or not I meet someone here.

And I'm done talking.

I made it! Barely...

*Fanfare of trumpets*
Huntress version 4 is finished! I managed to spew out over 3,000 words last night and I finished around 1:20 AM. Whew.

Now I'm all noveled out...

But it's finished! Yeah!

Now I get to switch gears officially and start working on my REALLY cool new idea. WHEE!

It's gonna be close...

I swear, I didn't mean for this to happen. I had all the time I needed to be finished with my novel by last night, and it never happened. So I'm stuck having to write furiously today to finish the last quarter of my book, which also happens to be the most jam packed part... Dang.

Here's what happened: I think it was Wednesday night I wanted to write something down on paper from my story so that I could work on it from my bed and not my computer. I pulled out the closest available notebook and began flipping through, trying to find a blank section I could work with. And what do you know, I come upon a story idea I hadn't seen in a while.

BAM! My mind's gears switched over from Huntress to my next project called Reality Repair Inc. GAH! That wasn't supposed to happen! Derail the train! Bail out! Anything!

Oops, too late. So now I have three character interviews (each at least 3 pages long with two columns on each page), and the plots worked out for eight books. Plus descriptions on the actual company, Reality Repair Inc., how Reality/Non-Reality works, and several minor characters to get in the way of my main character. *Sigh* And nothing new for Huntress.

I swear that I will have it finished by either tonight, or early tomorrow afternoon. I will die if I don't.

The sad thing about how this new draft is turning out is, after I took out all the boring parts I didn't want to have to write and didn't need to write, I'm almost finished and only have just over 10,000 words. So once I've finished it and taken a break from it (to work on Reality Repair), I'm going to return to it and expand. Not change the text, but add a lot of descriptions, which it is lacking.

So, now that I've made my confession, I suppose it's time for me to return to my furious typing to get this thing done with.

(I'm really REALLY excited about the new project. It's the PERFECT story for me. It involves libraries!)

Iowa

My dad got a teaching job in Audubon Iowa.

Whooo!

He and my brother Joe will be going there this August, while the rest of us stay here to get the house ready to sell.

I have until next summer to decide if I want to move to Iowa or not.

The upside is, I'll be getting out of Utah, and will probably have the same opportunities that I have here, the downside is, I'll be leaving Utah, and we'll probably be leaving our cats. *sob*

In other news, I'm going to Lagoon today with my family. This is going to be interesting.

I am so ecstatic!

I am really REALLY close to being halfway done with my novel. There are 45 plot points I have, and I have finished writing about 20. And this is all up from the 12 I had finished before. I missed having a computer, and I will forever be grateful to my younger brother for letting me borrow his laptop (which used to be mine.)

The good thing is that the laptop I'm currently using doesn't have an internet connection, so I'm not distracted. I'm going to get so much done!

The bad thing is I'm almost half way done and only have a bout 8,000 words... and my best friend's brother thinks it's Twilight-ish... Dang it, so not what I was going for.

A little news: I'm part of a writing group.

I have tried tons of times to start a writing group, or join one, but it's never worked out until now.

I was invited by my best friend's older brother to join him and two other guys once a week for a writing group. While it's kind of weird spending so much time with the geekiest guys I have ever met (and I mean that in a nice way) it's lots of fun, because I get great feedback on my stories, both the one I originally submitted to the group and the novel I'm working on.

I now spend upwards of 6+ hours a week with them, including DnD on Saturdays. It's been interesting!

My dad's in Iowa right now for a job interview, and I was given permission to borrow his Chevy Blazer until he gets back tomorrow.

Having a car makes my life SOOOO much easier.

But I have decided that I'm not a big vehicle girl. I like my small fast cars, not the big one's my parents seem to fond of, the ones that have almost no acceleration... Gah.

And I have no idea when I'll be getting another car. My hope is that I'll get my book published and earn enough money to buy the car I want (Dodge Charger SRT8 RWD in Deep water blue. With a moon roof.)

Anyway, I probably should get back to furiously rewriting my novel. I really looking forward to some art!

I will never drive a Star Destroyer again

My dad had an interview for a teaching job in Iowa so he needed to get to the airport this morning, and mom had to work so that left me to drive. I had originally thought we were going to take my dad's Blazer, but NOOO, we took the Monster. It's a Chevy Suburban, and it's one of those WAAAAY old ones that are ENORMOUS!

I was very nervous, because I had only driven small cars and mom tried to help be by calling my Alero a fighter plane, and the monster a Star Destroyer.

Needless to say, I never want to drive a Star Destroyer again.

It wasn't as hard as I had anticipated, but I didn't like it. I'm the kind of driver who likes going fast, and rabbits forward at lights more often than not. With Hank, what they call the monster, it's not possible at ALL.

What do I do?

I have a brother, right, who just turned 18 this year. He writes, like I do, but he writes war science fiction. Now, I have nothing against that genre, in fact I kind of like it. The problem is, no matter how many times I try to give him advice (and it's always the same advice) he never takes it.

And I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about, so I think that he could do better.

An example would be, all his characters, no matter how old, what personality, or what race, talk like they are from the 1800s. And he writes the same way!

Here's what happened that made me really mad, and created an arguement that eventually included the parents:

He had asked me to read his story a while back, and I had never gotten around to it, because I don't really like how he writes. But after I got into Google docs and really liked it, I set him up with an account and helped him put his story on Google docs so that I could have access, and be able to make comments for him.

Today I read through his prologue and left a whole bunch of comments. When he read them, he said 'okay, unless you have a masters degree in English I'm not going to take that advice, but okay.'

Am I wrong to think that every writer would want to make his story better? That every writer would want as much advice from someone with more experience than him/herself?


For news on Huntress, I'm borrowing my younger brother Jimmy's computer for the next week, and will do nothing but sit in my room and type. Maybe I'll finish the story by the end of the week! That would be really cool!

Big sigh of relief

I'd like to report that I have caught up to where I was before, and am well on my way to reaching my goal of finishing my novel by the 16th with the new plot. I had to head to my parents house and commadeer their computer to do it, and pissed of several of my brothers for hogging, but I did it.

The sad thing is I did it in less words than the first rewrite version. Sigh.

But I don't think I have ever written that many words in one sitting. It was exilarating, and a little exhausting at the same time.

I have changed the format of dividing up the novel from two parts and a 16 chapters, to four parts, called days, and much shorter chapters, so more of them. I haven't laid out what all the chapters are, so I don't know how many I will have. It might turn out that I have a lot, like all of James Patterson's books.

I'm relieved that I was able to catch up and even get past where I was before, but I only finished Day One. So I have three more 'days' left, and the third 'day' is REALLY long, because thats when most of the action takes place.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that I have made my characters much better, and solved the info dump problem I had, and I really like several characters that were originally background characters.

I will keep writing, and posting updates, but it's really late so I need to head off to bed.

Until Next Time!

Well darn. I really should have seen this coming.

I hit a snag in rewriting my novel. Not a little snag, a big one. A giant one. One that I can't ignore because if I do, it won't be the best novel it could be. And I have the craptastic fortune to not have a computer to work furiously to fix the problem. I only have whatever time I can manage on the library computers, and possibly heading home for the night to hog my mom's computer to get it done, but that isn't the most efficient.

Here's the problem. I'm was in the middle of writing chapter 3, and I realized that everything I was writing was boring. And the actual action wouldn't start until chapter eight or nine. That's halfway through the book. No one would read such a boring book, especially when the author couldn't read it without being bored.

My solution is to slightly alter what I already have, so that I don't get too behind in finishing by the 16th, but at the same time I'm discard a few things I had previously wanted, have characters already together, and kick starting the plot right into 5th gear.

It's going to take a lot of dedication to get back on track, but I'm really liking the new plot. It's a lot more energetic, more hectic and danger filled, and I get to work with a couple characters that were just background characters previously.

It's going to be amazing, and will be ten times the novel it is right now.

I have to go now, as I really have to start working on it, if I want to collect my reward.

Until next time!

I hate Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewert

I just saw the first New Moon trailer, and I already don't like it very much. Robert and Kristen both can't act in my opinion. She doesn't have nearly enough emotion for Bella, and he... just isn't Edward. He will never be Edward to me.
The trailer was okay, ish. Until the last couple of seconds, when you see Jacob, and notice I called him by the characters name because Taylor IS Jacob Black, and...
WHAMO! BUFFNESS! Just seeing Taylor without his shirt on as Jake made watching the trailer all worth while.

And you get to see him shift. That was even better! When the movie comes out, I will probably go see it just to see Jacob. (Which is funny, considering I have always been Team Edward, but Robert just isn't Edward...)

In other news, it's pretty much official. After my short stint as an adult living out on her own, I will be returning to live in my parents house and will be going to the community college.

I got over $3,000 for my car. *Squeal* I have never EVER had that much money before! And it's all going to college! I might actually be able to do this college thing...

I'm just a little bit behind on rewriting Huntress, but only a little, and truthfully, it's not my fault. My computer crashed, and I only have access to a computer either at my parents home or at the library, and neither for very long.

I officially don't have a car anymore, not even a shiny red Ford Focus rental car that I happened to fall in love with and miss a lot already... Dang.

On the bright side, I'll be walking a lot more, and will finally start getting back into shape.

I'm wondering if my friend remembers babysitting overnight with me, when we watched Peter Pan twice in a row. If she does, I have beaten that record, and watched something THREE times in a row. In the same day. With very little pause in between.

It's a movie called Crusade: A March Through Time, and it's a British film that went straight to DVD here in the states. It is an amazing movie, though you probably figured that, since I watched it some many times.

It's about a boy in his mid teens who, after loosing his 'football' match (soccer)uses the time machine his mom's been working on to try to go back and relive the game. Only, through an error, he gets sent back to the 13th century, right in the middle of the children's crusade.

And he subsequentially goes on to practically saving all of the thousands of children from starvation, sickness, slavery, and more.

Until next time!

Dear Readers - Please accept my apology

I apologize for not posting in a long time. I can assure you that a string of circumstances have allowed me much more time and I intend to post at the very least every other day, depending on if anything actually happens.

Even though I figure most of you readers already know what has happened since my last post, I shall do a quick recap for you

I lost my job: The company I worked for wasn't doing well enough to keep the office I was at open, and they had to close it and lay everyone off.

I moved to a cheaper apartment: BYU housing to be exact. I now have 3 roommates instead of 1, but I already like the three better than the 1, and love my new ward.

I lost my car: Someone rear-ended me pretty badly, and totaled the car (That's the simplified version). I was told by my dad that if they don't think it's worth it to repair the car, the other person's insurance will offer $xxxx for the car.

Good thing I moved closer to everything...

In the meanwhile my dad got me a rental car until everythings resolved, but after that I'll probably only have a bus pass, and will eventually lose the weight I gained at my sit-down job.

And I might be able to afford on semester at UVU with the money I'll get for the car. IF I buckle down and apply, and take the ACT, etc, etc.

On the bright side (in my opinion) I have seen Wolverine twice (Opening Midnight showing with Balgram and friends, and again with my friend Cheez), Star Trek 3 times (Better each time), and Terminator Salvation once. (Though that might change by Sunday)

It is quite possible I will be able to survive the entire summer without a job. We'll see how that goes though... I might just get so bored out of my mind that I apply for whatever I can get...

At least for now I have enough time on my hands to write like crazy. (Too bad I haven't started that yet...)

It is my goal to finish rewriting Huntress before June 20th. Then I can do some last minute polishing before the end of July, and have it off to some publishers by the end of August. Again, we'll see how that works. I will finish by the 20th though.

I'm even going to dedicate a Write-In with Balgram's brother, Cavdawg, to getting past the part I'm stuck. I'll let you know how that goes...

Until my next post, which will hopefully been in the next couple of days,

'Live Long and Prosper!'

Race, etc.

So I went and saw Race to Witch Mountain this evening.

Can I just say I was blown away?

I loved it. It had great music, a great cast of excellent actors, pretty amazing special effects, and an awesome, almost continuous chase from start to finish. I really felt for the characters, and wished the movie would never end.

It didn't get very good reviews from the critics, but is currently claiming a top box office spot. And it even beat a rated "R" movie at one point!

Score one for the kids movie!

There's no foul language what so ever, no innuendos, and over all is a wonderfully clean film.

The story, while is a remake on an old '70s show, was very well re-thought, and while the kids talking got just the tiny bit annoying after a while, it was completely bearable.

This is definitely a movie I will be buying (when I have money), and something I would love for my future kids to watch.


I have finished rewriting the first chapter of Huntress, and have started working on the second, though watching Witch Mountain has turned my attention temporarily to the fourth book (not going to tell you what that one's about, as it's a secret.)

And I took this afternoon to clean out my apartment's fridge, and MAN did it stink. But now it's all clean and only has my food in it. (Turns out my roommate doesn't eat anything at the apartment. I wonder where she does eat?)

That's all for now!

Okay, Here's whats going on.

First things first. Technically I don't have internet, but I'm 'borrowing' from one of my neighbors.

So what's happened to me so far is this. I've started working on rewriting my book again, and have had a lot of great ideas about it. The actual paperback copy is in the hands of my good friend Angela from work, then it's go to Sarah, then to Camille, the to who ever claims it next. So claim now!

I love living in my new apartment, it's always so quiet, except for whatever I'm listening to or watching, and it's so refreshing. I can seriously leave for work 15 minutes before work starts, instead of the 45 minutes I used to do. So far I haven't eaten any tv or microwavable dinners, which is really impressive for me. I am running out of recipes, but my mom's making me a book so I probably won't have too much of a problem.

My roommate has been in Texas since last Wednesday, and will probably return this weekend or sometime early next week. It's really nice having the apartment to myself, but I have found that while she's gone I'm up watching tv until at least 1, then read until after 2, and don't get up the next morning until at least noon. Not good for me. I'm trying to be better. Tonight I didn't even turn the tv on when I got home from work, but we'll see.

On actually rewriting my novel, I've learned a lot about my characters, what works and what doesn't, and am about halfway through the first chapter. It's actually exciting to see everything coming together better than how they were the first time around, and I really do see my book on the shelves of a bookstore or library someday. It's turning out to be a trilogy with a possible stand alone fourth book, which is exciting, and really unexpected. I was only ever planning on one book, but halfway through writing it a character who I wasn't expecting showed up and changed things in the first book, then revealed that he was something I had never expected and demanded a second book. And just the fact that he wanted a second book made the rest of the characters demand that I follow up with a third book to solve the overall conflict they all face.

So, I guess I'm stuck with three books.

My plan is to write the second one this coming November for NaNoWriMo, which I am proud to say I have got three people to think about doing with me from work. My really good friend Angela, my sort of manager Brian, and another friend, Sarah. It's always amazing to me how many creative people I'm friends with.

Speaking of creative people, I learned that not everyone has the same kind of vivid and exciting dreams I do. I know my friend Balgram does, as well as Cheez, so I had thought that everyone is the same.

Somehow dreams came up in the conversation with my friend Angela, and she asked me if I had vivid dreams. I told her I did, and she was very relieved, saying that she was glad that she wasn't the only one. I asked her about that, and she said that when ever she talked with her roommates about it, they always thought she was weird for having vivid dreams.

So it's my guess that vivid dreams are solely the 'gift' to creative people like me and my friends.

That was and interesting something to know.

My mind has gone a little blank as to what else to tell you, so I shall bid you all goodnight and promise to post again soon. (At least before the month is up.)

Wow

Okay, So I should have told you before, but I don't have internet access in my new apartment yet, so I haven't been able to check or post anything. But I have a very long list of things I want to tell the world, so I'll post it sometime this week when I go to the library.

Until then, I love my new life!

Well...

How embarrassing. I haven't posted in such a long time. I'm really sorry about that, but I've sort of been busy with other things... Dang you Hulu....

Any-who, I have some great news for my dear readers.

I'M MOVING OUT! It took me all of a week to find, see, and get an apartment twice as close to my job as I am now! I've already started moving stuff down there and the big moving day is planned for Saturday.

*SQUEAL, SCREAM, SHRIEK!* That's what I did when I found out that I got the apartment.

Allow me to describe the place.

The door opens and the only way you can go is right, into the living room. There is a very large wide screen TV, which belongs to the girl who has the other room in this condo, a coffee table and rocking chair that belong to the owner, and a large brown, really comfortable couch, which also belongs to the other girl. The floor is covered in brand new tile (real tile, not linoleum), and there is sliding glass doors onto the deck (it's on the second floor of a fourplex).

Next you have the dining room, which is a continuation of the living room and has a really pretty wood breakfast nook that belongs to the owner, as well as a large window onto the deck.

The kitchen is really small, but the sink, stove, and fridge form a triangle, which if I remember correctly from my interior design class, is very good.

There is a hall between the kitchen and the front door that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom. My bedroom is the door on the left at the end of the hall, right next to the bathroom which is to the left of my room.

And my room is quite large with a bright window and a HUGE closet that takes up one ENTIRE WALL! WITH TONS OF SHELF SPACE! The funny thing about this is the first thing I thought of when I saw all that shelf space was BOOK SPACE! and the first thing the girls at work thought was CLOTHES SPACE! Shows you how different I am from a normal girl.

The bathroom is pretty average sized, but is has a JETTED tub that comes up to my knees! It is huge!

All the walls have a fresh coat of paint that is pale creamy yellow, and the bedrooms have a dark brown carpet that is really thick and cushy.

I met the other girl tonight. She's in the National Guard, so she's not at the apartment very often, but she's really nice. When I went to pick up my keys tonight she welcomed me and gave me a hug.... (NOT what I pictured from a woman in the NG.) But she's seems really cool, and I get along with anyone, so there shouldn't be a problem.

The best part about this condo/apartment is that it's only $400 a month including utilities. And with the other girl gone most of the time, it's like I have my very own, one room apartment for HALF of what a normal one room apartment goes for.

YEAH!

Car Trouble

Sorry I haven't posted since November. I would tell you why, but I don't really know.

The reason I'm posting now is I had some car trouble.

Tuesday after work, I went to start my car and it wouldn't. Everytime I turned the key it sounded like metal blades were grinding my engine. I called my dad, and thankfully he was close by at a basketball game. He and my mom came and he tried to get it working. We tried jumpstarting it, we tried moving the car out of the parking spot, and finally we just pushed my poor car into the opposite parking spot and went home.

Wednesday dad called the car place he had taken it to the last time it broke and they said they would work on it. So when I rode the bus to work, I waited by my car until the tow truck came, then went to work.

I got to tell you, it's not a good feeling when you see your car being carried away. As it passed work I said goodbye to it, softly. My boss heard me, which wasn't a big surprise, and he asked who's car it was. He looked really worried when I told him it was mine. (He does everything he can, and has done everything, to keep the employee's cars from being towed. Long story)

Then I told him that it hadn't started before, and he relaxed a little, but still looked worried/sorry for me. (I gotta tell you, I love my boss.)

This morning, around 10, I woke up to my phone ringing. It was dad, who was coming back from a work appointment. He said that he had talked to the repair guy and that the car was fixed.

WHOOOOT!

He said that the part had a LIFETIME WARRENTY, unlike what he thought, and I only have to pay for the labor. I didn't even have to pay for the towing! And my car is fixed! I thought it would take a couple days, but apparently the guy worked into the night to get it fixed...

If I could, I would marry this guy.

So that's my story.

In other news, I found this new freeware program online that I love and have started using a lot. It's called Q10 and is a full screen editor. Since getting it on Sunday, I have written close to 5,000 words and 4 chapters on ONE STORY. Which doesn't happen! And it doesn't feel like I'm going to stop.

Usually when I switch stories I first have a new idea, and when I try to put it off I get a mind full of ideas for that idea. And I haven't for this one. I'm really happy!

True, I had to go through two other stories to get to this one, but this one, like most of my good story ideas, has been, sitting in the back of my mind for a while, and after watching some good TV shows that are related, it came to the front of my mind and demanded to be written.

It's a story about a 25 year old woman who hunts the undead and other things like that. And she has a cool backstory that makes me cry each time I read it, has two nephews who she has to take care of now that her sister is dead, and has a werewolf that is accidentally bound to her, unable to be more then 30 feet away from her.

The character, being a hunter of the undead, may sound like Buffy, but she's not. Not only is she way better, but she's also cooler, and cleaner, which is the most important in my mind.

And I have so many things waiting to be written for this story. I want to make it at least a trilogy, but depending on how long I make the story arch, it might end up longer.

The only plot I have right now is what's buzzing in my head for book one, and a few bits and pieces that I can't wait to write in the next books.

And I think it's going to be great!