Sunday, November 9, 2014

Beautiful Books Linkup #2: How Is The Writing Going?

I am doing NaNoWriMo (but you already knew that). And I................am almost 5K behind. I know, I know, I should be writing. Instead I'm here. That's what I doXD Tomorrow is catch up day:) I'm doing the Beautiful Books linkup! Thanks to Cait and Sky for coming up with the questions and everything!


1. Be honest: How is your writing going?
Well, it was going great until we decided to decorate for Christmas yesterday (yes, we're those people that decorate way earlyXD). Now I'm almost 5K behind! Feel free to be a cheerleader for me;P

2. What's your first sentence/paragraph?
“Breaking news. We have just received reports that yet another State representative has died. The cause of death has not yet been released, but as soon as we know, you will,” the news reporter announced, “This makes five victims in the last two months. FBI agents are on the scene, but they have yet to make a comment on whether they suspect a serial murderer. This is Harriet Cross with WMR News,” she finished. I picked up the remote and turned the tv off before anyone started talking again.

3. Do you have a book cover, and/or pictures that reflect your book? 
I do have a cover!:)

4. Do you have pictures of each of your characters? If not, describe the for us! (Be as descriptive as you can.)
I can do better than that! I have pics of wardrobe and actors/actresses for each character!
 One of these two as Gwen. Blue eyes, the hair below, and also the below wardrobe.


 Aiden Tyler (left) or Taylor Kitsch as Sammy with the below wardrobe.




Andrew Garfield as Chris is these clothes. 



And either Mark Sheppard (on the left. He's the one I'm leaning towards more) or Julian Richings as Agent Silverton.






5. What scene are you most excited to write?
Not sure. Maybe this scene when Gwen is in the hospital where Silverton shows up and she uses a card house to threaten himXD You'll have to wait for that oneXD

6. Share a snippet or scene that you really enjoyed writing.
Tons. I'll limit myself to just a fewXD

“I was so worried about you, Gwen. You really scared me. I thought I was going to lose you.”
“This is not going to turn into sappy hour. Sorry, Sammy. I won’t let it.”

You get no background on that one. Nor the next one.

"What two words start with 'S' and end in 'Y', and have a vowel and double consonants in the middle?"
"I don't know. What?" Sammy asked. 
"'Sorry and Sammy." I started giggling like a school girl when Sammy gave me his "are you serious?" look.
"Was that your idea of a joke? Because that was pretty lame," he was quick to inform me. He couldn't stand how often I said "sorry Sammy" to him.

All I say about this one is that it's Gwen's POV:

I pulled out my phone and looked at my caller ID. I, almost involuntarily, rolled my eyes and answered the phone.
“Walter, the noise you heard last night was not a ghost and I’m not a paranormal investigator, so I don’t know why you’re calling me anyway,” I said, before he could even say hello.
This is Gwen's POV. It's right after she meets Sam for the first time. He used Agent Harvelle as his alias.
“Harvelle? Really? As in the last name of Ellen and Jo on that tv show? You really need to come up with a better alias than that if you don’t want to get busted.”
“The name. That’s what gave me away? Really?”
“That and the fact that as soon as I walked in you started sweating bullets.”
“Well, and I guess it takes a fake agent to know a fake agent.”
“What gave me away? Cause I thought I did pretty good.”
“The hair. Cause, you see, unlike you, I actually used to be a real FBI agent. So, I would know that the FBI wouldn’t allow hair like that. Where, someone who was never an Agent wouldn’t know that because they only tell you that once you’re accepted.”
“That’s not a problem for me, though, because the people I interview don’t know that information, either.”
“Good point.”
“Now, I’m going to interview this Carl person and you’re going to stay out of it.”
“We could work together, you know. We would get a lot more ground covered that way.”
“Not gonna happen. I work alone. The only time I team up with anybody is when I need a hacker or it’s a multiple person job. Seeing as I can do this all by myself and I highly doubt you can hack as well as the hacker I occasionally work with can, I’ll pass.”
“Well, I’m continuing my investigation, so we’re likely to see each other again.”
“Just let me get my interview with Carl out of the way. The sooner I skip town the better.”
“WHat, are you running from something.”
“Nope. I just don’t like staying in one place for too long. I’m all about cheap motel rooms and greasy diner food. Not the type of life an ex-agent is quite cut out for. It’s in no way the life of luxury I’m sure you’re accustomed to.”
“Such hostility. Did an agent do something to you to make you hate us so?” there was a mischievous glint in his eye.
“I’m leaving,” I walked to my Jeep and opened the door, then I turned back, “Oh, and don’t follow me. That will just be awkward for everyone.”
Later:
“Following me? I should have the police called on you.”
He chuckled, but I didn’t think it was too funny.
“While you’re on the phone with them tell them that you’ve got a fake badge.”
“Just stay out of my way and leave me alone.”  I put my left hand on my hip and put my own sunglasses on with my right.
“Alright, Grumpy. Oh, I just found the best nickname for you. What do you think of Grumpy?”
“I think you better shut up now before I smack you. now, I’m leaving and if I find you tailing me, you’re going to be in for it.”
“Well, then I’ll make sure you don’t find me.” He lowered his sunglasses and winked at me. I turned and stomped away.
“My name’s Sam,  by the way,” he called after me. I ignored him and kept walking.
And later (again) also Sam's POV:

“Am I seriously going to keep seeing you?” Her voice was completely flat. If she was just pretending to not like me, then she was pretty good at it.
“Hey, I’m not complaining.” I made a “what” gesture with my arms and grinned. Then I quietly chuckled, trying to hide it from Grumpy. I really needed to get her name.
“Don’t even bother going in there. She wouldn’t even hardly talk to me.”
“She’s the daughter of vic number two, right?”
“Yeah. She’s also a big cry baby.”
“Gosh, Grumpy, you need to be more of a people person.” I teased.
“Do I look like a freakin’ people person to you?”
“Hey,” I raised my arms in defense, “all I’m saying is if you were more of a people person you might get more information out of people. Charisma is key.”
Gwen says this:
“You better shut up, Samantha. I’m liable to come over there and beat your tail.”

Ok, I said just a few, bu I really like their banterXD
7. Now that you're writing, have any of the plot details, or the process itself, turned out different from what you planned or imagined?
Lots is different. I introduced two characters and my villain way before I had planned to.

8. Is there a character or aspect of your plot that's difficult to write?
Chris is hard to write. I guess it's because his parts aren't very large before he meets Gwen and Sam. But, they're essential to the plot, so i have to have them. I guess a 3 page chapter is better than no chapter, right;P

9. What's your favorite aspect of this novel so far? Favorite character?
The banter between Gwen and Sam. Gwen really can't stand Sam at firstXD Favorite character would have to be Sam!:) He's awesome! Gwen is only 0.000000000000001 percent behind himXD <<I totally made that upXD

10. Have you drawn off of any life experiences or people you know to create your novel or characters?
Nope. But, I have come to realize that Gwen is Dean Winchester (from Supernatural) made over. Totally no intentional. I figured out who and what type of person I wanted her to be at a time when I couldn't stand Dean.

11. Do you have a playlist or certain song for your novel and/or characters?
I listen to a ton of piano instrumentals when I write! Also a ton of Imagine Dragons. Like, every ID song ever over and over againXD 10x in a row is my current recordXD That's almost 11 hours. I wasn't writing that whole timeXD Demons by ID goes really well for Gwen.

12. Let's have some fun for a moment: imagine you are somehow transported into your books world. Which character are you most likely to be found hanging out with?
Hmmm......Either Gwen or Sam. But probably both since they spend 98% or the story togetherXD

13. How do you keep yourself motivated to finish your daily wordcount ? (Pinterest? Internet breaks? Chocolate?)
I just make myself sit down and do it. Except when we decorate for Christmas. Then I don't write. 

14. What's your favorite writing quote or piece of writing advice?









15. How does this book make you feel so far? Are you laughing? Crying? Frustrated?
Proud and insecure. I love pretty much every word I write, but I worry about almost every word I write. Weird, right?

And that's that! Hope you loved it. This was a ditch effort to encourage myself write and guess what!
It didn't work. I'm going through the week 2 doldrums. I think. I'll shoo them awayXD Maybe.

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

NaNoWriMo Prep

NaNoWriMo is in three days (counting today), people! Three days!!! I am officially freaking out! I am like 95% prepared and yet I feel like I'm not prepared at all!


What am I doing to prepare?
The simple answer is lots. The long answer is a nice little list. Don't you just love lists!

1. Writing.
Sounds obvious, right? Well, I haven't written more than a sentence on a single story since Camp NaNo in July! I wrote my outline for November, but that wasn't really writing a story. This was hard for me. I decided to write a short story and getting started was hard. But, I wanted to get the creative juices flowing before November 1st.

2. Reading old writing.
This was more of an thing where I switched all of the files on my old computer over to Google Drive. Then, I saw a document with an intriguing title and I forgot what it was, so I read it. Then I read pretty much everything elseXD It was good enough that it made me want to start writing immediately and dominate this story! Pretty good motivation! When I decided to do this I was Kermit:
But it wasn't too bad. I was pretty happy!:)

3. Going over my outline and notes for my NaNo '14 novel.
Yet another given. I'm pumped up!
(yes, I did just totally reference Full HouseXD I was one of those kids who loved Full HouseXD)

4. Tell people what I'm doing.
I told all of the people who like to text me and hang out that I am considerably less available in November. I'm not going to completely write off hanging out with people, but I will use it as a reward for myself. I only get to hang out with people if my word count can afford it (meaning I'm on track or ahead). If not, then I don't get to hang out until I catch up.

5. Hitting up the forums.
Well, one, anyway. The NaNoWriMo forums are a great way to get encouragement! It's one thing to get encouragement from someone who has no idea what trying to write 50K word in 30 days is like. It's another thing entirely (and it works better) to get encouragement from someone who knows exactly what you're talking about! So, I highly recommend the forums! Just don't spend too much time there like I doXD

And that's it, really. That's all I'm doing to prepare. Am I under prepared? I don't think I am. I think that this is almost perfect for me. but what about you guys? What are you doing to prepare?

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Blog Award Nomination

I was nominated for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers award by Roo over at Roomble!!!! Thank you!!!:D


There are only a few simple rules:
Thank the one who nominated you. 
Post the logo on blog. 
Answer ten questions.
Nominate ten Bloggers. (I might not have 10 people to nominate, but I'll try)
Ask them ten questions.

1. Who's your favorite superhero?
Captain America all the way!!!! No question about it whatsoever! 

2. C.S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien?
Gosh, Roo?? That's a hard question!!!!! I guess it's probably Tolkien.

3. What's your favorite animal?
Hmmmmm.....Probably the otter:) I think they're so adorable!

4. What song do you listen to the most right now?
I basically listen to all of Imagine Dragons songs on repeat at least once dailyXD

5. How long have you been blogging for, and did you have a plan for the blog when you started?
I've been blogging for about 2 years now and when I first started my plan was to be a book and movie review blogger. I soon found out that I liked blogging about my writing and my life, too.

6. Cake or pie? (This question is serious business, everybody >:|)
Cake! Pie crust is gross! The texture bothers meDX

7. What month/time of year do you feel the most creative in?
I have no ideaXD Can I say Summer, Fall, and Christmas?XD

8. Tea, coffee, or just water?
I drink water pretty much all the time. But I love tea!:) I hate coffee, though.

9. If you could instantly learn one language, what would it be?
Latin! I really want to know Latin!

10. Did you smile today? Better yet, did you make someone smile today?
I smiled a lot today and I made my mom and brother laugh several timesXD And I made the cashier lady at JCPenney and at Walmart smile:) I love making people smile:)

Now my questions:

1. What's your favorite fandom? (I know, it's one of those torture questionsXD)

2. Who's your favorite female lead character? It can be from a book, movie, or tv show.

3. If you could act in any movie, show, or book adaptation which one would you choose?

4. Favorite season?

5. If you could have any superpower what would you choose?

6. Dogs or cats?

7. You were just thrown into the world of the last movie you watched. How screwed are you?

8. If you had a billion dollars how would you spend it?

9. If you could live anywhere in the world (or in any fictional world) where would it be?

10. If your favorite character showed up at your door asking you to go on an adventure with them who would it be and would you go?

I'm horrible at coming up with questionsXD Now, I tag people!




That's basically everyone I know to tagXD How about this: to anyone who reads this and wants to do the tag, you've officially been tagged!:D

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Meet The Character: Gwendolyn Scott

This is the third of my character intros. It's on my FMC, who just so happens to be my favorite character in the story. It will probably be the last one unless I decide to do one on my antagonist. Not sure what I'll do yet.

Name: Gwendolyn Hadley Scott
Age: 19
Hair: A short black bob haircut with purple streaks in the front
Eyes: Gunmetal blue
Occupation: Private Investigator

Meet Gwendolyn. Everyone calls her Gwen and she prefers it that way. Unless she's going by an alias. Which is 90% of the time if she's on a case. She never uses her real name on a case. She's a very troubled girl. Her parents died when she was ten. Her eighteen year old brother practically raised her. She got a job and moved out when she was seventeen, which is normal for teenagers in the year 2017. Her brother died just under a year later. Not many people take a nineteen year old private investigator seriously and Gwen hates that. She knows what she's doing and is very good at her job and wants people to respect her for that. She has the mentality that if other people want her respect than they need to give her a little respect as well. She pretty much scared of nothing. She also steers clear of people and doesn't like to get too close. She feels like she has a "death curse" because everyone she's every cared very much about has been taken away from her.

Her fashion sense is pretty much amazing! Like, I want her clothes.

Her hair is amazing! The streaks don't go all the way around. Just in the front.


Her basic style is shown in this pic and the one up there^ and the jacket.



                           The pantsuit (-->) is what she                            wears when she's trying to                                  look all official and stuff on a                            job.






She is also a movies buff, like Sammy. She and Sammy like to talk in quotes with each other. Once she learns how to be friends with him, anyway. She loves music and reading. She's also an amazing shot. Bulls-eye pretty much every time.

She's very snarky, witty, sarcastic, you get it.


 As you can tell, she's not afraid to hurt people feelings. Or to scare them.



 She avoids people at all costs, she likes to be her won boss, and she's in her own world. You definitely don't tell her she's crazy.


 The one up above and the two to the sides are directed towards the antagonist. She really hates him. With good reason.


See why she's my favorite? That's not even counting the serious quotes! I figure ten quotes is enough, so I won't post any of the serious onesXD I think she's going to be amazing!:)

What do you guys think?

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Beautiful Books Linkup #1

In preparation for NaNoWriMo, Cait and Sky change their monthly Beautiful People linkup to Beautiful Books. It's still for writers and you don't have to be doing NaNo to linkup:) Just pick one of your WIPs and answer the questions using it. It's a three month series, fifteen questions each month, focused on the plotting in October, writing in November, and editing in December. I'm participating in NaNo, so I'll be using my NaNo novel, the one I've been doing character intros on. So, without further ado:



1. What came first: characters or plot idea? Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Characters. I knew about Gwen and Sammy before I started even thinking about a plot and it took me several weeks to come up with a suitable plot for them, seeing as their so stubborn and demanding about what the participate in;P Usually I'm a pantser, but this year I decided to plot. I split the story into three parts and summarized the parts and then summarized each chapter. It's a pretty detailed thing.

2. Do you have a title and/or a "back-cover-blurb"?
The title is "Blurred Lines". I thought of the name basically because in the story the lines between what is right and what is wrong get blurred. This is my blurb:

Gwendolyn Scott is a private investigator. She's not your traditional PI, though. When she gets a lead about a big government cover up she goes deep undercover to find out the truth.

Samuel Richardson is and FBI Agent. Strike that: ex-FBI agent. When he caught wind that the government might be considerably less than the straightest arrow he got out before he got in trouble.

Christopher Quinn is an innocent bystander--or, he had been last week. Now he's on the run with vital information that he accidentally intercepted at work.

These three completely different people crossed paths and became the unlikeliest of comrades with one mission: discover what they're up against and, if necessary, take it out before it destroys the country. Or the world.

It's not great, but it's not to shabby, either, if I do say so myself;P

3. What word count are you aiming for when your novel is finished?
Preferably 50K. Not sure if it'll make it that far, though. It'll either be way more or way less.

4. Sum up your novel in three sentences.
Oh gosh. Really? Um...let's see: It's about three people, barely more than teenagers, who can't hardly get along for five minutes when they first meet. There's a seriously screwed up government trying to accomplish world domination with a villain so annoyingly diabolical that you can't help but love him at least a little. It's those three up against all of that and a bunch of other crap happens that makes you seriously pity them.
How was that?

5. Sum up your characters in one word each.
Again? You're killing me here! It took me ten minutes to answer that last oneXD
Gwen: Broken
Sammy: Encouraging
Chris: Sassy
Agent Silverton: Evil (I would say pure evil, but you said one word)

6. Which character are you most excited to write? Tell us about them!
That's a hard question! What us you with you guys and asking me to do hard stuff?XD
Probably Gwen. She's a nineteen year old private investigator. She doesn't really get any good cases, but she knows what she's doing. She's wanted in a couple other countries for stuff she never did. She's basically a total kick-butt kind of girl. And she's been through a lot of rough stuff. Her parents died when she was ten, her eighteen year old brother practically raised her until he died when she was eighteen. She turns twenty somewhere during the book and she's already been through all that. She became a freelance PI when she was 16 and went to other countries and stuff happened. Then she came home when she was eighteen (just before her brother died) and more stuff happened and her name is slightly well-known in some parts of the country. She's in a really dark place when the story starts.

7. What about your villain? Who is he, what is his goal?
Agent Silverton. His first name is Agent;P Not really. He just doesn't have one. He is a lot worse than Loki, but I'm aiming for the type of bad guy that, no matter how many times he does bad stuff to the protagonist, you can't help but love them just a little. I'm looking at a Crowley kind of guy. Actually, before I even saw Mark Sheppard, I kind of always saw Silverton as Mark Sheppard. I didn't know it though. I saw Sheppard and was like, "THAT'S SILVERTON!" His goal is to whisper ideas to Mr. President and convince him to take over the world and make Silverton next in line for the "throne". Then once all of the heavy lifting is done, he'll stage a little "accident" for the President and rule the world.

8. What is your protagonist's goal? And what stands in the way?
Her goal is to basically save hundreds of lives. Silverton. He's pretty much the only thing in her way.

9. What inciting incident begins your protagonist's journey?
When several state reps die, including a close family friend of hers.

10. Where is your novel set?
2017 United States and 2017 South America (not sure where exactly in SA yet)

11. What are three big scenes in your novel that change the game completely?
When Silverton introduces himself to the trio for the first time, when the trio finds out exactly what's going on, and when Chris gets arrested.

12. What is the most dynamic relationship your character has? Who else do they come in contact with or become close to during the story?
The most dynamic relationship is probably the one Gwen has with Sammy. They go from barely tolerating one another (mainly on Gwen's end. Sammy kind of liked her from the start), to being friends, then close friends, then a couple. And he kind of pulls her out of her darkness. But, she's also grows close to Chris. And she's close to a woman named Georgina (she only plays a little part) who is a close family friend that she thinks of as an aunt.

13. How does your protagonist change by the end of the story?
She goes from a hard, somewhat cold-hearted girl who's in a really dark place to being halfway happy. And she starts caring about her life again.

14. Do you have an ending in mind, or do you plan to see what happens?
I've got in mind for it to end with Gwen, Sammy, Chris, and a few others releasing information that basically collapses the government (only because everyone in the government was in on the world domination plot), but we'll see what happens.

15. What are your hopes and dreams for your book? What impressions are you hoping this novel will leave on your readers and yourself?
All I really want is that at least one person that I don't know and will probably never meet gets enjoyment out of my novel. As for myself? I just want it to prove to me that I can do this.

There you have it! This was really fun! But hard...thanks for that;P

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Meet The Character: Samuel Richardson

It is officially one month until NaNoWriMo! To celebrate I'm doing the second of my character introductions!

Name: Samuel Elijah Richardson
Age:22
Hair: Brown
Eyes:Hazel
Occupation: Unemployed; ex-FBI Agent

Meet Sam, or Sammy. Gwen calls him Sammy. He's a very optimistic person, but not to the point that he gets annoying. When things are truly bad he will admit that things are bad, but he sees the silver lining, too. He does get mad and rant, but then he'll be like, "Sorry, I needed to vent for a bit. It'll all be ok, though." He's not afraid of much, either, including death. His biggest fear is probably losing people he cares about.

His fashion sense is sort of like the guy version of what I like to wear:


Skinnys, plaid, and a jacket. Usually leather, but I do have some like the one on the right. And beanies! So, yeah, he dresses like me, but with guys clothes. And more muted colors than I wear. But he wears a suit when he's trying to look official.

He's big into movies. He's into basically all the same fandoms I am (yes, I did that on purpose;P). He's an amazing mechanic and should get an award for marksmanship. He's also a black belt in several martial arts divisions. He also likes to play guitar.


 He's has a nice sense of humor that often breaks the heavy tension.





 He likes to quote his favorite movies and tv shows.





 And when he's trying to be all encouraging and optimistic he says words of great wisdom. More wisdom than a 22 year old ex-Fed should have.






















I think he's going to end up being a pretty fantastic character. And extremely fun to write! I honestly don't know that he and I will even butt heads.

So, what do you guys think of this character? And are any of you NaNoWriMo this year?