ON SHELLS & SKELETONS

So. SO. I have been scrounging and digging for something decent to post up because it seems that all my regularity in posting comes from the FRENZY OF MADNESS that ensues when I can't stop writing. And this FRENZY OF MADNESS happens when I have every single detail fleshed out. Which I don't. With Eidolon. I keep having epiphanies and scribbling like a mad woman, then I go write about dinosaurs (NO. TRUE STORY. THERE ARE DINOSAURS IN EIDOLON.) and I have brief flashes of the blog that could have been. But when the dinosaurs are gone, so are these flashes.

Clearly, madness breeds genius.

But sanity can breed it, too, yes? Maybe? PLEASE.

Probably not. BUT. Even if it's not genius, I did manage to think of something to write about today. I DID.

I'm a self confessed outliner. Before there is any writing that can count toward word count of a story, I write a one-liner pitch thingy, a query, a synopsis and a three act outline. YEAH. So when I sit down to write I know my stuff. I know exactly where this story is going. And I like that. Still. Even the best laid plans can rot (or something. I feel like Russell Crowe said this in Robin Hood but I'm probably wrong...). When I write my outlines, I think of them as shells. The scenes are objectives - this and this needs to be accomplished to get from point A to point B. How it's accomplished is completely up to my characters. By the second chapter, they're calling every. Single. Shot.

But having a shell, I've realized, is different than having a skeleton. All the gooey goodness that you need to make a story work falls out. And right now, half of my story is a shell, and the other half is a skeleton. I need it to be all shell to make it work. Umeko and I need to sit down and have a thorough heart to heart about WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO. And what Jackson wants to do. And who's gonna get busy. And who might die, be left behind, alter the course of the universe (their universe).

SO. Yes. Outliners (and non-outliners) what makes up your shell? Do you even NEED a shell? Please. Tell all.

TEASER TUESDAY XIV

So. I figured it's time I teased since I haven't in so long. Also, I promisepromisepromise that I will get back to regularly updating The Raven Desk. Life isn't hectic but there are things going on and I'm learning (slowly) how to juggle all of them. Also. Trying to make life-altering decisions which is very, very difficult. But I'll resume my three day a week schedule soon. Soon. But yes, in lieu of that, the first almost 400 words of Eidolon.

Greta is a D cup. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. Her back hurts, but she smiles anyway and takes her cup of coffee from the barista. The stiletto heels that she’s wearing belong to her mother. And she stole the makeup on her face from her twenty two year old cousin, Paige. 

She’s also not me. 

For such an empty mind, she was difficult to hack. I expect state secrets, or rendezvous points with drug dealers to take up the virtual space in her head. Instead, all I hear is a constant litany of ‘my back aches’ that is sometimes replaced with ‘my ankles are sore’. 

They’re also fat, Greta. Your ankles are also fat. 

That’s a fact buried in the corner of her mind. She ignores it with practiced ease and takes an experimental sip of her coffee. 

Even though I’m not Greta, I’m sharing her mind. And I can taste the caramel laced through the coffee. And the ice chunks crunching against her teeth. And the way her ankle wobbles when her heel gets caught in the sidewalk crack. 

It’s 2158 and we still have side walk cracks. 

Why? 

I decide I don’t want to deal with her pain. She’s going to fall in eight seconds and scrape her knee. Her coffee will spill all over the front of her new sun dress. She might even cry. 

And I’d be forced to cry with her. Even though it’s not my mind, I’m sharing it. There are rules. 

I disconnect and log out just before her knees hit the ground. From my vantage point in the Network, I can read the coding of Greta’s mind. She’s fallen. Her knees hurt. 

And now she cries. 

I block her and let myself float up into the cyber stream. 

Literally – physically – there are no levels to the cyber stream. But that’s how I see it. There are levels and wires of coded information swimming in a million different directions. 

Even the president is floating somewhere around here. Most of the code is locked up in little bundles, hidden from the casual observer. People nowadays guard against intruders and viruses so everyone has a firewall. But some walls are stronger than others.

ON BEING 20 & THANK YOU (AGAIN)

So today's my birthday. I'm twenty and maybe officially and adult. Probably (not) officially mature. Maybe officially 'old'.

Traditionally, you guys are supposed to give me a gift. Because it's my birthday. But I think that's kind of ridiculous. So I'm giving you a present. Or what I hope some of you might think of as a present.

If you keep up with me, you know I've been struggling (fighting) with two different stories and trying to organize my mind in a way that I can understand and function. And even before that I promised that I would show you guys a pretty little secret if I ever hit twenty pages on my current work in progress.

I haven't hit twenty pages, but I did break 5K which is kind of a big deal. The story is picking up and the words are flowing and I'm so excited about it now. Balance has been achieved. Stuff is happening. I've finally gotten past the awkward date stage and into the 'honey moon' stage. We'll see how long that lasts.

And I wanted to share it with you guys. Or what it's about - so that when Teaser Tuesday's start to pop up (and they should, I promise) you guys aren't completely lost.

So without further ado, I give to you the premise of EIDOLON:

In the 2058 every human mind is linked to the Network, a vast virtual space that shares information. 

Umeko is a No One; she has the ability to shed her own identity and download into any mind linked to the Network. But when she downloads into virtual space controlled by the viral program Dot9, she can’t get out. And she’s not the only one. Three others, part of a squad tasked with the job of eradicating Dot9, have been trapped with her. 

Now, the four of them must find a way to disable the Dot9 program before it spreads beyond the virtual space and takes over every mind in the Network. And before it infects them and assimilates them into its program.

 And with that is the cover that I made for it (and love so dearly). Staring at it makes me write, guys! So it's not just a cover. IT'S A MAGICAL COVER.

Also (and again) I wanted to thank all of you guys. For the birthday wishes, for the awesomeness, for the help and support. You guys are awesome, no joke. And I'm blessed to have met all of you. :)