teaser tuesday!

Personal note: I am not an early blogger. Sleep, in the form of comatose like bits, means I typically don't wake up until noon, sometimes later if I know I don't have anything to do. (I know I'm not the only one who does this, not because my mother does the same thing, or because I know a few friends who do the same, too, but... I just know. ESP. Yeahhhhh.)

That being said, I figured it would be better to post my Teaser Tuesday post before everyone else passed out sometime around midnight (typically the time I start my internet trolling and Facebook gaming. Curse you and your delicious looking cupcakes, Cafe Life!) This week, since it's my first, I'm going to do two teasers; one from my work-in-progress-of-hopeful-potential-awesomesauce, Illumine, and the other from a well known author I frequently creep upon, Maggie Stiefvater. Maggie's first book, Shiver, was one of the few I took my time to stare and page through at my local B&N forever ago, completely drawn in by the simplicity of the no-fuss, beautifully crafted cover. It reminded me of those doodles and squiggles I used to make on the corners of all my notebooks and folders in High School when I couldn't focus on whatever ridiculous algebra lesson the teacher attempted to describe.

Her jacket description, courtesy of Goodreads, goes like this;

the cold.Grace has spent years watching the wolves in the woods behind her house. One yellow-eyed wolf—her wolf—watches back. He feels deeply familiar to her, but she doesn't know why.

the heat.
Sam has lived two lives. As a wolf, he keeps the silent company of the girl he loves. And then, for a short time each year, he is human, never daring to talk to Grace...until now.

the shiver.
For Grace and Sam, love has always been kept at a distance. But once it's spoken, it cannot be denied. Sam must fight to stay human—and Grace must fight to keep him—even if it means taking on the scars of the past, the fragility of the present, and the impossibility of the future.

When I read this originally, I was in my post-Twilight phase, meaning I was sucking in anything that had vampires, werewolves, magic period. Not that there was anything wrong with that, not at all. I can't tell you how many wicked books I found admist my inhaling and exisiting in B&N over the past several years (well, actually, I will tell you, it'll just take a while) but the point is, when I read the jacket to Maggie's book, I had to read more. Here's the two sentenced quote I'm capturing from Shiver for you all.

For a moment, I forgot where- who -I was. For a moment, it didn't matter.

You can't tell me that doesn't make you want to know who or what or how everything is going on. Why didn't Grace care she forgot who she was for a moment? Was she that enamored by something before her eyes? What had taken a hold on her heart so suddenly, with such an intensity? If you haven't already read the book, please do so. Paperback, ebook, I don't care, just go inhale this book like I did.

 So, there's teaser number one. And now, I have to let you all in on teaser number two. I've only had this blog for a little while now, but I've been cultivating and crafting my story for about two years now, caught between freaking the hell out about it failing miserably and so in love with it that if possible, I would have married my little hard drive by now. The love-hate relationship I have with Illumine is so intense, half of the time I don't know if I'm ever going to finish the thing. Essallie is constantly sitting in my head, chatting away about all of the elements in the story, and here I am ignoring her because I've been told somewhere that hearing voices in your head is generally the first sign of insanity. (Not that I haven't heard voices before, nah.) But about a month ago, I swallowed my pride after reading one of Veronica Roth's blog posts about jumping off the bridge already and getting it done, and I said to myself, "Okay. Let's do this. The first couple drafts of this is going to be terrible, but you know what? That's what editing is for. And friends. And coffee. And boyfriends like Tim. And movies like Titanic with a box of kleenex because honestly if I see Jack die one more time I'm just going to sob for hours."

But, I'm stalling. You'll notice I get sidetracked a lot as time goes on as I post more on this blog. I like rambling. Shiny things are beyond amusing. And Coca Cola makes me so damn hyper that most of the time I drink it and then I sprint around the house trying to keep up with my brain and it's own personal, seperate ramblings. So, before I launch into a personal essay of the pretty shiny things within my eyesight right now, let me give you just two sentences of Illumine.

I covered my mouth and screamed a name, flinging a hand out into the darkened miasma surrounding me. Death would not stop me, for death could not kill an angel. 

 

 I'm not cool enough to have a jacket description or Goodreads location for it just yet, partially since editing is a beast I'm still trying to slay off in the corner of my room, and partially because my Mother wants the computer from me to check her email. She really does need to get a smart phone so she can just check it on there and let me go back to canoodling with my hard drive in piece. That is, until we get into an arguement about how terrible my writing is, and I go back to episodes of True Blood for distraction.

new layout? check.

Since I still haven't jumped onto the 'In my mailbox' wagon just yet (I'm still so new to this whole book blogging business, and yes, it is a business. Have you seen some of the people who do this 24/7?) I figured it was time to dump the standard blog template and give it a new, clean look. So if you've seen my blog before and suddenly go into color withdrawal shock, don't fret. I'm going to go deviant art hunting over the next few days and design a pretty banner up top with lots of color.

I'm still editing my work in progress so far, but I'm pleased to say it finally has a name. Illumine. I'm hoping with persistence and tons of coffee that I can get this story done, edited, beta'd and published by the end of the year. Honestly, I wanted to be cheesy and wait until after the new year so I could gather my friends on holiday break and tell them all first, but I'm itching to put my words out there. I figured, as a small insentative, I will start posting small segments of chapters, awesome little teasers, for you guys to read! Yay!

demi lovato, please stop saying our love is like a song.

Ever get a song stuck in your head? Not like the finger-tapping random-humming types, but the ones where you only know a few words and you keep repeating them over and over and over? /twitch. Demi Lovato has completely done that to me, and while I want to blame her, I can't. I blame my friend, Katie, who let me scroll through her iTunes and ravage it for new inspiration music.

Well, the inspiration came, just with the crazy re-signing of the same song for three days now. Haha... /twitch twitch.

I'm kidding. I can't blame anyone for my random brain's choosing to suck onto one song like a squid latching onto prey for lunch. Only me. And the inspiration has been working just fine, too. I'm not going to snub my nose at ten more pages sitting in my sacred Word document. Heck, I'm about ready to party. I'm halfway through my first draft and it's freaking beautiful. No more strong characters deciding they didn't like my guessing of their story, no more shredded outlines and nights of frustrating not-writer's-block because each one of them is screaming at once, begging me to write them first. To the voices in my head; I am only one vessel, with two very clumsy hands. I can't write all your stories at once. Please form a single line and take a number.

As far as I know, that didn't sound too crazy. Coming from a crazy person, though, maybe you shouldn't believe me.

oh, hello there awesome muse! long time no see.

I know I shouldn't start off a blog sounding very valley-girl by saying 'so', but I'm in too good a mood to care.

So.

SO.

I don't know if many people know this, but I think I've discovered the key to opening your mind and letting your muse run wild and free, like a unicorn in a field of talking flowers where the talking flowers just so happen to give you this awesome advice on writing the next section of your Pretty Word Document. Ready for this?

I cleaned my room. /cue horror music

I know, this is probably one of those, "Oh holy crud, people do that? They actually clean?" The answer is yes, yes we do. See, I'd been starving, metaphorically speaking of course, and hadn't really written anything in about a week. Or at least nothing worthy of a happy smile. More or less it was just me mashing my left cheek against the keys, trying to make some magic happen. That, or I was playing with my ipod, hoping a song would come on and hit me with wonders and inspiration.

(Why can't I look that cool when I put in my ear-buds?)

But after hunting through Bed, Bath, and Beyond for a new clothes rack, you know, so all my clothes can stop living on my floor, I figured why not clean up the place and make it look a little less... hoarder-ish? Plus, I was getting tired of finding my cat sleeping on a t-shirt I was planning on wearing the next day. 

Over the hurdles of trash bags, the random cans of half-consumed soda I found hidden under my bed, and something that I think at one point actually resembled a plate with food but now looked like a fuzzy hairpiece for a balding man, I found out that not only did I have a floor underneath the mass, but it looks pretty freaking sweet when it's vacuumed. I felt like my day was almost complete, until I opened my clothes rack box and found the base centerpiece busted in half and attemptedly re-glued. (Yes, I know attemptedly isn't a word.)

Minor setback aside, everything seems to have worked out well. My Pretty Word Document, let's just call her PWD for now, gained 5k+ words. That's roughly a chapter and a half, but hey, I'll take it. Two days of writing in a row and I haven't stiffened up from fear! I love it. I actually read somewhere on Veronica Roth's blog to just barrel through the fear, jump off the building and into the water below, so to speak. I think I'm gonna take that to heart.  

& so the insanity begins?

Why is it that the hardest post is always the first one? That sounds remarkably ironic coming from a writer, I know, but just work with me here. It's 12:03 am and I think my brain is completely fried.

I guess you could say that this blog is mainly for me to sputter out whatever the heck bounces off my head that won't end up in a story somewhere, or on my other primary blog that I take part of on a writing forum. That one is more up the alley of, "My boyfriend and I are fighting and I need a place to vent/scream/cry." Because as much as I love staying anonymous in my merry little world over there, I'd rather not drag old posts of me sobbing over an ex-boyfriend to here when I'm more interested in talking about my prized work I'm working on.

You see, I've been chewing over a story for the past almost-not-quite two years now, and it's finally coming into place. While I'm positive I've got the first title for it, I'm not so sure if it's going to stick just yet, so I'm holding off on a name for it and just calling it 'Pretty Word Document'. I promise, I'll come up with a better title later when the gods of my inner cranium bless me with a title.

I just hope I actually finish this little creation of mine. Not like I don't have an incentive to not finish it; most of my friends who have seen some of it didn't complain, and no one on the writing board I'm apart of didn't say it sucked, either. That's good, right?

I think I'm going to go back and mash my face to the keyboard now.