Darn Cold

I have to apologize for not posting, although there was anybody viewing the blog so I don't really have anyone to apologize too... Oh well.

I got the slightest bit sick the past couple of days *cough hak* so I well, you know, spent the past couple of days resting and surfing the Internet. If there's one thing I wish I had when sick was my balance (felt like I was going to fall over getting up too fast a few occasions). We all know how it feels to be under the weather... not that the weather itself is too good either. Really! It needs to make up it's mind already! Hot or cold for crying out loud! No wonder my entire family is sniffling! Grr... Okay, I'm done ranting.

I can't say I'm an expert on things or ever will be, but I intend to inform my audience of things that you might find interesting, pertaining to the book I'm writing as well as it's message. I will have to say... There will be times that I will go off about some great game that will come out (Like Dream Drop Distance for the 3DS). With the proper equipment, maybe I can make a walkthrough for a videogame or two. I must mention I have a liking for video games.

First things first though. I know that saying simple things about my day and asking about yours without anything to go on after is rather boring. Well, I can at least share with you a few tips in story planning. One important thing is to write down the ideas where ever you can, whether it be a napkin, Google Docs, or an envelope. Paper's paper. Another good thing is to have a team of people you work with. With me, it's my family and a forum that I go on with a similar view of books and genre that I do. Find what works for you.

I know some of you don't want to deal with writing but about 80% of Americans want to write a book so I'm going to guess that at least one person viewing the blog has some dream of it. I must warn you, if you're in for the money, don't waste your time. Writers don't make a ton of money unless your Christopher Paolini or something. Trust me. Publicity is hard to come by.

One other crucial tool is a guide book worthy of the money you spent on it, chock full of tips and suggestions to make sure that a book gets accepted by a publisher. It's also good to get it before developing the story. Saves you time. I got a book, Write-A-Thon, during the writing process and I have to say, I wish I had got the book first. Now I have to pause my writing to read the book and evaluate what I've already made. If you're humble enough to see that what you make is almost never perfect, you would see that almost everything I've written so far is just a droll, dragged on beginning. And that's after four months of writing. Trust me, don't waste four months writing without a couch. Get the book. I recommend it.

Prologue- Part 2

So today I will inform you that my posts will be less frequent, as I was awake up until midnight writing as well as blogging and homework. Most likely you'll see a post every other day. Not only will this make things less stressful, it will leave me with two day's worth of information. Depending on how this system works in the next week or two things may get posted or not. I'm still figuring out what topics are worth discussing.

I hope you liked the part of the prologue I posted. No one commented so I assume it was okay at least. I think this next, and last, part of it still needs some revision. But then again, I'll be doing that to the entire book eventually. Let's hope that I get time to write today! I also have this really good book that I wish I had read before development of the story. It has good tips for how to put characters together into realistic situations and dialogue. Sometime during the summer, I plan to do a write-a-thon, a point in time where I write the first draft of my book in 26 days. Yes, this will be different since I've already been writing since October (or something along the lines) and have a word count of 25,000 words in total for the two versions I worked on (17,000 for one and 8,000 for the other). Oh wow. I just realized that's half of 50,000. I've written enough for a 150 page novel. Wow. Don't think this is anywhere near over! For a novel to get published, a writer will end up writing something close to 1,000,000 words. Let's see... I'm 3% done. Yep. Four months worth of work and only 3%. I've got to get writing!

So, today I will post the other half of my prologue. Hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment on it!

The thought of that make him jump. Oh, how he loved to read the day away with pretty words taking shape in his mind as a moving picture prettier than anything that even the greatest artisans could conjure. He walked over to the window where the moon was shining it's rare lavender light upon the town.

Suddenly, there came a clatter of silverware and an angry shout from beyond the closed door. The sounds of someone yelling and someone yelping in pain echoed across the estate. The valloian managed to slip the papers under the sheets before the door was thrust open and a furious and tired he-dragon entered the room.

"Have you been sneaking out again?!" He questioned as he cased his dark-green eyes on the shattered glass. "You have, haven't you? Where did you get this?" He pointed to the bed.

"Get what?" His son asked innocently, making his eyes appear as big and cute as possible.

He lifted the blankets. "This!" He screeched, picking up the sheets of paper. "I don't know what this is but if you found it in your little get-away tonight I won't let you keep it!" He then threw them into the fire on the other side of the room, the fire greedily consuming the delicate writings like hungry little fish. "I want no more of this! You are part of this household and should act like it!" He then huffed and exited the room, slamming the door.

Soon Ritio came back in. The butler scooped up the glass particles with his bare hands. The boy quickly came to aid in the task, picking up the larger pieces and putting them in the unbroken half of what remained of the jar. "I'm not part of this family though...," he muttered under his breath.

"What was that Master?" the older dragon asked, rubbing the red welt on his cheek.

"Nothing."

"Your hands will get cut." Ritio reached his hand out to the dracling, but he drew away.

"Why should you have to do stuff like this? Why can't I work like you?"

"You are part of this household, that is enough."

The young dragon stood up and threw a toy in the fire. It burst in the flames, illuminating the child's pained and infuriated expression. His lips were curled and his sharp teeth glimmered. "No, I'm not!" He then flopped on his bed miserably with the burden his father had never lifted, only made it heavier.

"Now what is this?"

The child looked up sullenly. "What?"

"This. These parchments. They look... familiar. Master, you should come look at this."

Wordlessly, he took the scraps of paper that had survived his father's rage.

"My dearest must be... must be..." he read outloud. 

Ritiro read over his shoulder. "That symbol looks charred. It looks like a name symbol. The twin dots at the top indicate so."

"But what does the rest of the sentence say?"

The butler took the paper and brought it closer to the fire. The dracling cringed, fearing the flames could consume what was left.

"My... my must be..." He scrunched his eye brows. "Must be kept safe."

The dracling blinked.

"Master, I can't decipher the name. I can't even tell if it's a person or a thing. It could be dearest, desert, beach, anything!"

The dracling shrugged hopefully. "We'll figure it out! Besides, there are more scraps that could tell us!"

"I sure hope so Master, I sure hope so."

Prologue- Part 1

Hello again! I've decided I would post my prologue in two posts (for those with low attention spans like myself).

*head thwaks against wall* My friend told me she sent me the pictures from our trip to The Boiling Crab but they never appeared in my in-box! I can promise you that I will carry my camera with me more often in order to put something on here besides words.

I'll conclude today's drollness with half of my story's prologue.

The valloian lifted the jar while keeping an eye out for the sentry outside. His eyes glimmered in the moonlight. Dark skin and quills shivered as wingbeats sounded from the cold air outside. The small dragon had managed to make it out of the mines without being caught, and was holding his item of interest. His childish round face brightened at the odd, dusted oval shaped container in his palm.  

What is this? He thought. Even though he had never expected to turn up at the dusted mines he thought something was amiss with the delicate glass protecting whatever was inside. Is it something some dragon had left behind after his shift? Maybe there’s a poisonous bug or snake inside! It was too hard to tell with the rusting jar and dirty glass concealing the contents within. Maybe he could sneak back home and open it up there? The child thought to himself, brainstorming hiding places for the mysterious item.

There was a rustle outside, the telltale rattle of quills being carried by the soft breeze to the dragon's hiding spot. Hopefully the spot he had chosen now would hide him! There was no way that the dragon wanted to get caught outside at this time of night. Soon the sounds died down and the hideaway felt safer. He crept out from behind the boulder, opened his leathery wings, and took off, the jar safe in his talons while his arms were busy flapping away at the chilly air.

He made it home as quickly as possible, careful to sneak in the back way, where Ritio would be, keeping an eye out for anyone who came into his master's room to check on him.

The butler called with a course, whispered voice as the sneak-away’s wingbeats disturbed the silent peace. "Master? Come quickly!"

"I'm coming!" He replied, landing on the grass covered ground and then hopping through the window. "Thanks!"

"Master, as the only one who knows of your nightly flights I suggest you be more careful! You’re only nine years old and too young to be doing this sort of reckless absurdity," the butler addressed as he took the jar and placed it on the table next to the door like is was a normal thing.

"Nah... you worry too much. You get some sleep, and go ahead and eat my pumpkin pudding, you need it more than me." The child smiled.

"You are too kind Master, I most certainly enjoyed the trifle amount that the chef gave to me at dinner. Night sir." And with that, the groomed red dragon excused himself from the room, but not without tucking the dracling into bed. The boy pulled the covers further over his head like an exhausted kitten snuggling into his mother's soft belly.

Ritio closed the door to let the sleepy dragon get his much needed rest. When the last rays of light from the hall were cut off, the dracling jumped from the bed and grabbed the filthy container in his hands. I wonder... He thought. With a quick thrust against the edge of the table, the jar shattered and bits of glass scattered across the carpeted floor. There were notes of some kind... Symbols of the Val language covered the white parchment. Were they someone's deepest, darkest secrets? Was it a love letter? Maybe it was a novel that never made it to the printing press!

My phone hates me

Unfortunately, my Mac refuses to run the modem to transfer info from my phone, from which that video I was talking about yesterday is. It was a video of my chem class burning magnesium... And it was funny too... I'll be sure to carry my camera with me more often so I can get a video. I'd love to entertain my followers. *sigh*

I have lots of detailed information about my story's species and cultures on Holyworlds.org. My user name is the same as the one here, Seabird. The link to my sub-forum is at http://www.holyworlds.org/fantasy/viewforum.php?f=140

I will post this as a link at the top of the page just to let you know. I also have some links to pages in the site and pages to other people's blog.

STILL awaiting my pictures from The Boiling Crab. I hope to get them posted tomorrow.

I've always wondered... How many people believe the 2012 rumor of the world ending? I don't believe it because I know that God has his plan and we don't know when the events of the end times will occur. The rapture could take place before I'm done posting! Anyways, I'm just curious of people's opinions on this.

Okay, so the rapture didn't happen yet. But it could occur anytime in the future...

I'll be posting a excerpt from my story's prologue tomorrow along with those pictures! Have a good one!

So tired... Need to write...

Ug... I barely have the strength to tell you that I'll upload my first own video tomorrow...

*passes out*

Another day, another chapter. Yes, I'm still copying down the stuff from the retreat. I know, I've been spending too much time on Youtube. If I am, I might as well put up some videos. :)

If I got turned into a cat, this would be it. Not my video! I don't have a good enough camera for that.

Besides screaming adorable kittens, lets talk about something else. I'm in the process of developing an original templete! A friend of mine has agreed to help me. I don't know when the two of us will be able to get things tied together, so it might be summer when it finally gets up. At least I have the idea!

Today I feel like talking about good writing atmospheres.

I usually use a site like Write or Die or Written Kitten to keep me on task. I also like to compete with my online friend on this forum for Christian writers. Being around motivated people helps get you itching to be as good as them. It's not the most innocent drive but when a writer is starting out, seeing someone who is much better than you gives you the urge to be like them. Monkey see, monkey do no?

I have to say that chatting with people who are constantly writing is good because I can ask them if they would like to ww, not World War people, word war. We set a time limit and then write as much as we can within that time limit. After, we compare our word count. I know someone who wrote over 1,000 words in 15 minutes… o.e

There are several things that help me get into the ZONE (my term for when I'm invigorated with my story and I'm writing like there's no tomorrow)

- upbeat music with no words (electronic works best for me. Songs with words encourage me to sing along and focus more on that instead of my novel)

- quiet setting (no siblings jumping on your bed, crazy family having pillow fight, ect.)

- a laptop wallpaper that expresses the mood of the story at the moment (usually red during emotionally stressful scenes and a calm, blue-gray for descriptive scenes). Try to find one that isn't too complicated or you, if you get distracted easily like me, might find yourself gazing at the pretty wallpaper or laughing at the funny photo of a kitten.

- warm, caffeine-free tea. Only do this if you have a DESK to put it on. I almost spilled it on my laptop when I didn't do that… D:

- Join a forum with writers on it with the same writing interests as you so you can ask them for help! I do this when I need a name for a character for my steampunk-medieval fantasy. It helps speed up the process of development quite a bit, not to mention you can help other people in return. If you have a writing buddy already on g-mail or whatever connection possible, just be sure there's someone there to challenge you to write today at the flick of dragon's tail (sorry, got carried away with my fantasy there. xD)!

What would you do to remain concentrated? 

Also, what's your favorite animal? I could go on and on and on about cats because they're just THAT awesome... Fantasy creatures count too! Comment, rate, subscribe! Or is it comment, rant, follow?

God Bless, 

Seabird

Well, I had an odd day. It came out good in the end but it started out really awkward. I won't get into that.

But the best thing happened too! So there's this place called The Boiled Crab *looks for address*
1631 E. Capitol Expy #101
San Jose, CA 95121

It's a really good restaurant! You don't have a plate and they serve seafood to you in a bag, and you eat it with your hands! The fried foods come in a basket. The catfish was AWESoMESAUcE!!11! The clams, served in a bag and covered in sauce, made my hands all messy. I have a couple of photos but my friend who took them hasn't sent them to me yet. *sigh* I wanted to show you guys now... And no! This is not gross, ITS DELICIOUS!!!

I haven't actually been writing, I've been copying down a chapter I wrote in my notebook while on a winter retreat. I'm on such a difficult scene... I have a group of friends, some of them have asked each other out, and are going to the Spring Festival. This is the celebration of the New Year along with the coming of spring on the town of Nebey, the home of the heroine. 

I don't know much about the inner mechanisms of males, as they are a different species. *eye roll* I've seen more bad that good in men so I end up making my male characters too nice in my opinion. 

So, what do you think is in a good man and how do they portray that? After today, I know how the not so good ones show it. =_= *growls*

So it begins...

I'd like to welcome anyone who has stumbled across this... Or has been dragged here from Facebook.

Anyways, I'd like to skip the bland formalities and get right to the good stuff. (Okay, I've never done a blog so I have no idea what I'm doing.)

Uh... Well, the story itself- that is Peacekeeper's Essence- is at ch. 10, with a second version to boot. I have to thank friends and family for encouraging me this far and hope that you will join me with just as much enthusiasm as I progress closer and closer to the completion to the first draft.

So I'd like to ask... I already know that I should post daily (or as often as possible) but... do I write ideas... or experts... :/ Help please!

Well, at least I can promise that I will entertain you with my hyperness. ;)