Monday, April 30, 2012

Is it still a "Lucky 7" if it's seven months later? =P

Amazingly, I was never tagged during the last round of the Lucky 7 meme, but Dan fixed that last week when he tagged me in it. Let's see what I'm doing:

The Rules:


  1. Go to page 77 of your current MS/WIP.
  2. Go to line 7.
  3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written. No cheating.
  4. Tag 7 authors.
  5. Let them know.
I was originally going to do CROSS//Revenge, but the sample was total crap so I went to my other WIP CROSS//Process  and it was much more interesting. So ba-blam. Cursing be abound.

 
            “Ma’am, he…” She could feel all the bile in her stomach lodged in her throat, “he tried to assault me.”
            A perturbed silence sifted throughout the office, and Cairn did not dare to look at either Jayna or Penelope the whole time she waited for a response. “How so?” Cairn thought she could detect a slight growl in Jayna’s voice.
            “I was just sitting in the tavern when he came and started harassing a few other girls. When he got to me he said some horrible things and tried to touch me inappropriately.”
            “So you stabbed him?” Penelope’s indignation was as apparent as mold on bread. “Jayna, do all of your little shitheads act with such little self-control? No wonder they sleep so close to you, you have to fucking babysit them all night.”

Yay violence!

Hey, let's just take this time to notice that I posted two days in a row! Woo!

(and no, I'm not tagging anybody. I wouldn't even know, man.)

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Weekly Writing Check-In: IN AMERICA...we get sick.

Hello all! I am back, yet again. Hopefully for good this time. As of yesterday I am officially moved back in America. I had a lovely and fun vacation in Tokyo, although silly me went out bar-hopping in Shinjuku Wednesday night...and if you don't know, bars in Japan are REALLY small...like, seating only 10 people. Which mean they're very, very crowded. And smoking is still a big thing in Japan, especially in bars. And little ol allergic-to-smoke me was surrounded by cigarette smoke and a friend who just got over the flu, and with my lowered immune system at the time, I woke up thursday with...a cough! Oh. Well you can imagine how well  I handled a cough on a 24 hour trip home. Remember Christmas when I came home and I instantly had laryngitis? Remember the flu I had earlier this month? It's time for both!

So yeah, sick again. Although doing better now that I've finally found the right OTC drugs to take. But yes, checking in to let y'all know what's going on with this blog. Entries should be resuming their normal pattern this following week as planned, unless I super-die from this flu again. See you around! And don't hang out in Japanese bars with a low immune system! <3

Monday, April 16, 2012

Weekly Writing Check-In: Oh wait it's Monday.

Technically, it's Tuesday here. As in, not the weekend. But I'm doing my check-in now anyway because I just utterly forgot to do it last night, I was so "in the zone" with my packing and throwing things out here in my apartment. That's pretty much how things are going to be until next Monday, and then I take a quick trip to Tokyo for the rest of the week before flying back to America indefinitely. Ah, stress.

On the writing front, things are continuing steadily. Well, except for my hubpages enterprise, which has had to take a bit of a backseat this month since I don't have time to write hubs AND pack and still get some sleep for work. But the editing on Rebirth is continuing and I've even been inspired to work on Revenge when I get the chance. I added about 2k the other night alone when  Iwas feeling particularly inspired. Hooray! I really do need to stop introducing more and more side characters, though. It's a habit of mine.

I hope to be around enough this week to do the rest of my usual posts, but we'll see. Odds are I'll continue to be scarce until the end of the month when I'm back in America. Wish my luck with all this packing! Ugh.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Friday Flash: "Sealed"

Back to writing some bits of fiction. Actually, I've been writing all week when I can find the time. All that sickness last week has made me make up for lost time this week.

This week's flash fiction piece is brought to you by me trying to find something to share from my camp WIP, but not thinking any of it fit to post yet. So I wrote this scene up. It's just short of 1000 words. Not sure if it'll make it into the final draft, but regardless, it was a good exercise in getting into third-limited again before camp happens in June. (She says as she goes off to write in omniscient elsewhere...)

No warnings this week, I believe. Although the word r**e (if the word triggers you, odds are you can guess what it is) does appear once.

---


The chief cleared her throat and set her pen down on the darkened desk. She felt the sweat ooze down her skin beneath her silk robes and considered calling for an attendant to turn on the fan above her – but it was midnight, and all the attendants were asleep. Even her loyal bodyguard was probably asleep just outside the office door.

Cairn stared at the contract before her and read it for the hundredth time. It was her handwriting that spelled out the terms, but it was Lord Ramaron Marlow’s signature that swept across the bottom of the parchment. An extra line existed for Cairn to put her name and stamp the official seal of the Second Tribe. Only then would the contract be binding and the mission granted.

What am I doing? The image of a swath of blond hair walked by before Cairn, although there was none there to touch. She heard the conservative laughter in her memory. My love, what have I done?

Folly. Signing the contract would be pure and utter folly. By selling Sonall Gardiah to this julah Cairn put the peace of Second Tribe at jeopardy – what would happen should death befall Cairn, its great chief? With the second in command away and unfit to assume duty, chaos would rule as mercenaries fought to take the deposed chief’s place. And why shouldn’t something happen to Cairn, considering the name beside Sonall’s on the contract was none other than Sulim di’Graelic, the sleeping bodyguard just beyond the door.

I doom us all. Truly, the odds that doom would descend with this contract were slim to none, but if Cairn’s predecessor had taught her anything it was to always assume and plan for the worse. But if what Ramaron Marlow had told her was true, then Second Tribe would cease to exist if nothing was done.

“I need your two best hands, your greatest team.” With the gold to back him up, any chief would have jumped at Ramaron Marlow’s proposal, idiotic or not. But even the promise of gold could not sway the chief’s heart in this matter. She could not sign the contract.

No, she would. She had to. She was Cairn di’Cerilyn, the chief of the Second Tribe of Cerilyn. It was her duty to put her mercenaries and their livelihoods above her own desires, something her esteemed predecessor had failed to acknowledge. They were as good as her children, the whole lot of them, including the looters and the rapists that made her life hell every time lawsuits were brought up against them. They depended on her decisions to feed and clothe them, and if what Ramaron Marlow said was true…they depended on her to keep them existing.

Cairn picked up the pen and tapped the edge on the contract. She wrote her adopted name as slowly as her heart beat beneath her robes.

She was still safe, since the seal was not planted yet.

Her throat was dry, but she still managed to call out to the slumbering oaf in the corridor. “Sulim.” Her voice sounded like the doom she would bring them all.

A thump, and then the door opened. Sulim staggered in as she rubbed one eye. A stronger chief would have reprimanded her, but all Cairn could see was the swath of blond hair and the taut lips that laughed when they were alone.

“Ugh, what?” There was no laughing that night.
Cairn gazed at her and then at the contract. “Come here. You must help me.”

Sulim appeared too tired to question Cairn’s strange request. She stumbled to the desk and stood beside Cairn’s chair with a sway that made the chief wish she could send her to bed. And I would follow you. Instead the chief picked up her seal from her desk and put it into Sulim’s hand.

“Help me stamp this contract.”

“Then can we go to bed?”

Cairn chuckled. “As many times as you like.”

“Once should suffice.” Sulim yawned as her hand traveled along the seal and met Cairn’s palm. Together they pushed the seal to the contract and were done with it.  “There. Now please tell me you’re going to bed so I can get some sleep.”

Cairn opened her mouth to tell Sulim what she had just helped her sign. But how would she say it? I’ve sold you again, after I promised I wouldn’t. It didn’t sit well.

It could wait for the morning.

“Go.” Cairn shooed her away. “I’m just as likely to die on my way to bed tonight as I am in my sleep. Go get your own.”

She watched Sulim bow her head and take leave of the office. They exchanged no pleasantries, as it was assumed they would see each other again soon enough.

Alone again, Cairn foisted her head into her hands and sobbed. A tear crept through her fingers and splattered the edge of the soiled contract. My love, my love, what have I done? Cairn stood in defiance to herself and left the contract to rot on her desk. I’ve sold you and killed you, that’s what I’ve done.

Come morning she would have to tell Sulim what she had done. Until then she had a few blessed hours of pretending she had not agreed to send her bodyguard off to her death.

Those hours were best spent abed, Cairn decided. She picked up her remaining things and trudged into the corridor towards her apartments, alone and unguarded. She would have to get used to it in the coming weeks.

Years.

For if Sulim di’Graelic died, Cairn would not take another bodyguard, so her own death could come that much quicker.

My love, my love, I’ve sealed our fates. Cerilyn is doomed, and we’re all to die.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Camp is back! The return to space pirates and general lawlessness is at hand!

Recently I've been hankering to work on the first draft of Process again, because I don't have enough to be working on already as it is. Process was the draft I started back in Camp Nanowrimo August 2011. It's the first of two prequel stories in the CROSS// series, and there are a lot of differences in how I write/tell it than I do the main series:

  • Process is in third-person limited (with three POVs) as opposed to omniscient. 
  • It takes place entirely on another planet without any sign of Earth hanging around.
  • The main characters start off as teenagers as opposed to, oh, 30.
  • Lots of gratuitous violence, sex, swearing, general space piratey/mercenary stuff that I don't otherwise ever write to such extremes.
 It's a very different approach to writing all-around for me, so when /I want to write it, I really want to write it. Which has been lately. Of course I have no time to work on it at all, so I've just been reading / editing a little on the 80 pages I wrote last August.

Then I decided to see how Camp is shaping up this year, assuming it was going to be in July and August, like last year.

Well, I was wrong! Camp Nanowrimo is taking place in June and August, which is great! I've already signed up for June and can't wait to add another 80 pages of this crap. I'm not going to think about it more until Mayish though, when I'm settled back in America fruitlessly job searching getting my American life back together. Or something.

Anyone else doing Camp this year? Here's my profile.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Weekly Writing Check-In - I LIIIIIVE!

Sort of. I may be a veritable zombie at the moment. Earlier this week I got a bout of the 24hour flu, stressed myself out too much the following day, and sunk into a prolonged flu relapse the day after that. Thursday I was completely incapable of even sitting up (and since I live by myself until the end of the month, you can imagine how...certain chores went.) So nothing writing related, even checking Blogger, got done. But that's cool. I'm sure I needed some forced relaxation seeing as how I move out in two weeks and I barely have half my things packed and nothing cleaned.

..but on the other hand, if you would like an episode by episode recap of The Mentalist Season 2, I will be happy to oblige! :D

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Weekly Writing Check-In: Awards! Editing! Yay!

Things have been rather hectic this week - in preparation of moving home I've began packing, and woah, all my stuff doubled since I moved here last year! (And I've been diligently shipping things home once a week, so this is quite a feat) and of course I'm just all in a tizzy because stuff is getting expensive up in hurr. I just keep telling myself that ~everything will be fine~ but you know, moving stress!

On the editing front, I've finally plowed through evil chapter 8 and think I've edited it as much as I can now. There reaches a point where all you can think is "WORDS DON'T MEAN ANYTHING ANYMORE" when you read the same scene over and over again.

Moving on...it's award time! Wow, it's been a while! But the wonderful Yelena Casale has given me not one but TWO awards! Woo hoo! Here's the first one:

Sunshine Award

  • Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.
  • Write a post about it.
  • Answer the questions below.
  • Pass it on to 10 bloggers who you think really deserve it and let them know.
Here are the questions:

Favorite color: Orange. I should hope it's obvious by now.

Favorite animal: Cats. There are no other animals.


Favorite number: Anything except 9.

Favorite non-alcoholic drink: Water.

Facebook or Twitter: Both are pretty good at ruining any day by showing off how awful people can be.

My passion: Writing, cats, and (listening to/writing about) music.

Getting or giving presents: I would say "getting" but then that just means I'm getting more crap.

Favorite pattern: ...what.

Favorite day of the week: On a standard week - Saturday. Because you can sleep in AND stay up late. All other days are wannabe posers.

Favorite flower: Rose, I guess? I'm not really partial to any specific flower. So long as they're orange.

The next award!

Kreative Blogger Award
This award requires giving 7 random facts about oneself. Well, okay....


1. I have lived in Japan three times now for varying lengths and with some time in between - however, I'm moving back to America at the end of this month. See above for my packing woes.

2. Part of my packing woes come from me buying so many cheap Japanese CDs here. I collect CDs, particularly those of Asian artists. I currently own about over 400.

3. I can't imagine a happy life without at least one badass cat in it.

4. Up until I was 20 I had very long hair. So long that I could sit on it. I finally got tired of it and realized it no longer fit the image I had of myself and cut it all off into a "pixie" style I still keep today. It suits me much more.

5. I consider myself a fan of video games but I play very few. My eternal loves will always be Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda. Nintendo 4 lyfe. (Final Fantasy wishes it was so cool.)

6. Soup and chocolate are my favorite foods, but never shall the two meet.

7. I wear fashionable wigs whenever I damn well feel like it. My favorite is a blond pixie style. (Sometimes you just gotta be blond.)

Done! Now it's time to pass these on...hm, who shall it be?

Sarah Pearson 
HR Sinclair 
Aldrea Alien
Danika Dinsmore 
Alessandra Hinlo
Susan Francino 
Angela Cothran 

Sorry if you've already received one or both of these...or am I? ;)

/back to editing
/um i mean packing
/lbr I'm playing sims.