Just Kiss Already

Christina Lee and Stina teamed up to bring us this blogfest. Check out the other entries here.

This excerpt is from my next story idea. I plan to write this book when school's out but here's a glimpse into my novel writing future (in less than 250 words):

The tip of Fay’s dagger presses against my throat. The heat of her wild magic makes my throat itch and burn but if I move, I know she’ll kill me. Morgana could bring me back from the dead but I know I won’t come back right. I’d be as mindless and empty as Mom after Morgana tried it on her.

I say, “I didn’t know you’d be here.”

“You’re at my house, Oliver.” Green sparks run up and down her black hair.

I take a mental photograph of the way her body curves, all coiled power and sin. I know my memory won’t do her justice but it’s all I have since she decided Morgana and I were evil.

“We don’t have to be enemies Fay. Morgana’s prepared to forgive you for betraying-” I shut up when Fay flips her dagger into her wrist holster and wraps her tiny fingers around my throat. It’s so nice to have her touching me again.

Fay’s grip tightens but then she drops her hands. Her breath tickles my neck, “I can’t kill you Ollie. I should but-”

“You still love me.” I whisper.

She bites her lip and my resistance crumbles. If she finds the courage to finish me, so be it.

I kiss her. And she’s kissing me back, as untamed and feverish as ever. I’m unsure how much my heart can swell before it bursts.

Fay should know she’s never needed daggers or magic to kill me.

Let me know what you think! How was your weekend? Any plans this week? (It's midterm week for me...excuse me while I go off and die! Except, not really, because that's way too melodramatic.)

Also, Happy Valentines Day! 

Be Jolly By Golly Blogfest!

Our Christmas tree isn't uniform or color coded like the fancy trees in the stores. It isn't perfect and is a little crowded. (It's also fake because I'm allergic to pine!)

There are things Sister and I have made,

There is stuff mom made,

There are decorations that mark times in our lives. Like the ornament I got for my first Christmas, (that makes it twenty years old!)

We even have two stars! (Second star to the right and straight on till morning!)

Our tree is full of us. In my opinion, that makes it better than perfect. 

My favorite grouping of holiday decorations (every available surface in the living room is covered with stuff!) is my mom's village made entirely of the Baileys collectible houses (that only come out at Christmas!).

My favorite holiday dessert is Grandma's Sugar Cookies. If you're interested in the recipe, let me know and I'll email you. All you get for now is this year's icing was made with icing sugar, food coloring, and Bailey's. They taste amazing!

My favorite holiday drink is Peppermint Hot Chocolate. For every 5 ounces of hot chocolate, add 1 ounce of peppermint schnapps (and a little extra if you're like mom and I!). Make sure to dust the rim with sugar. Add a cinnamon stick or peppermint candy cane as a garnish and you're good to go!

Thanks for stopping by and for joining in on this blog fest! Sharing Christmas with my blogger family is a brilliant beginning to an epic holiday season. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

PS. After I finish visiting everyone for the blog fest, I will be taking a hiatus from blogging over the holiday season - my baby sister is coming home tomorrow and I want to spend as much time with family as possible. I'll see you in January!

Please try and stop by as many other blogs as you can and share the holiday spirit, we have so many awesome participants and Jen and I are absolutely amazed at the turn out.

Be Jolly By Golly

Christmas cookies and happy hearts, this is how the holiday starts!

Jen and I teamed up to create an awesome, candy cane infused, blog fest because we think all of you are fantastic and want to spread the holiday cheer. 

We bring to you:

Be Jolly By Golly

We want to know how you celebrate. 

Before you get your tinsel in a tangle, here are the rules:

1. Post your blog sometime on December 20th.

2. We want pictures of your decorations, holiday lights and Christmas tree.

3. Share your favorite holiday treat (Feel free to share the recipe so we can all share in the yummy).

4. Share your favorite holiday drink (Either alcoholic or non, share your recipe if you please - you're all going to want to drink mine so I'd like some options to steal too).

5. Don't forget to visit everyone else, share in the holiday spirit and spread the cheer. 

Basically, this blogfest is Christmas dinner with your blogger family, you don't want to miss out on the fun. Also, our badge is AWESOME. You should join just so you can nab it.

Please note: If you don't celebrate Christmas, we want you anyways. Share your holiday traditions with us, whatever they may be.

To segue into an entirely different topic without any warning, I have another announcement to make. 

Two years ago, mid November I started writing my book. I wrote like crazy and was two chapters away from finishing when my computer crashed. I lost everything.

After a while, I started writing again. I got about halfway through when I decided I was writing in the wrong tense. I started again. I got halfway through (again) before one of my characters decided he didn't like the way the plot/storyline was working out for him and he dramatically changed the sequence of events in the first book. (It's a trilogy.)

I started over.

I had a third of it done by the end of summer but school started and excuses piled up. As you know, my goal with NaNo was to finish my book. I gave NaNo 122% (according to how many words I wrote) and finished my first draft yesterday at noon.

I am so overwhelmed and happy (especially because I have crazy amazing family members like Cousin K and Little Sister who changed their Facebook statuses to celebrate with me).

How's your writing? Any accomplishments lately? Are you stoked on this blog fest or what??

Show Your Space

Summer is hosting a Show Your Space blogfest to launch off NaNoWriMo so we can all creep on each other and know exactly where we are as we kill ourselves in order to pound out 50,000 in 30 days.

So here's my writing space!

And, because I know everyone secretly wants a close up:

When I went to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter I totally bought a Marauders Map and then, I framed it - like any good Harry Potter fan would - this is just the section I chose to immortalize behind glass. There's way more to this magical map. 

Oh? You guys wanted my real writing space, didn't you? I'll be honest, I almost never sit at my desk. I do most of my writing here:

That's right. I do most of my writing in bed because I like my pyjamas, fluffy blankets and being comfortable. I know your jealous of my polka dot bedspread. It's a party every night down here (in the basement which moonlights as my room). 

You may notice the little dots on the wall and ceiling. Those are glow in the dark stars. (And yeah, I'm such a nerd I arranged them like real constellations.) If you look carefully you'll see Leo (for me), Draco (because) and Aries, Libra and Cancer (for my three best friends).

Today is the first day of NaNo so Good Luck to all you other insane people out there and for those of you not participating, enjoy your sanity. 

My blogging is going to be sketchy this month, but I promise to make at least one stop to each of your blogs every week. 

Go HERE for more entries in this blogfest. (Look in the sidebar!)

The Great Blogging Experiment

I don't know about you but I hated the Stepford Wives. They were so boring - if I knew one, I knew them all. When you read a lot, characters can start to blur together, faces, attitudes and actions merge into a handful of different people.

 

How do we avoid this happening to our characters? Keep them from getting lumped into the masses?

We can give our characters quirks, habits that are unique to them alone. The more strange, outlandish, and different we make these quirks, the more readers will love them. Right?

Wrong. 

It seems like this is the best option, that our characters will stand out and leap off the page. And they will. They'll leap off the page and stab your reader in the eyes. 

But, if the realization isn't obvious: no one can read if they can't see. 

Any quirks we give our characters need to be relevant. There needs to be meaning, a purpose (Harry Potter's lightning bolt scar, for example. Can you imagine how stupid it would've been if he really got the scar in a car accident and he was just walking around like that, for no real reason, on top of all the wizarding stuff?).

So if layering quirks to give our characters an edge isn't the best way to go about writing compelling characters what is?

We need our characters to have strong motivation - they may not always know what it is, at first, but maybe our novel is about them realizing their motivation (which is, in turn, it's own motivation - ironic right?).

We need to take from life by bringing real emotions to the table. As writers we must live their pain, relish their triumphs, cry and laugh, and worry with them. If we can't feel it, neither can our readers.

Our characters should be complicated. The reader needs to see the surface while innately knowing there is more to them than they could ever hope to know - like when we meet people in real life. 

And last (and arguably the most important thing) to avoid writing bland, cloned, most-annoying-characters-ever is to make our characters rough. Flawed.

As both a writer and a reader I say this with complete and utter conviction: your characters aren't lovable in spite of their flaws, they're loved because of them.

To read more entries about writing compelling characters as part of the great blogging experiment go here. I encourage you to go check out as many as you can. My goal? Do.Them.All.