So if you are still following this blog, then you have managed to do something I have not! And that is stick with this blog. I have been busy with graduation, a new job, and writing things for people, and also contributing to YA Highway and in the end, I am not motivated enough to post here on the regular. :(
BUT. I have noticed that I am motivated enough to post on my tumblr on the regular (without capitalization perhaps and while abusing the English language to a frightening extent, but I am posting). So I invite you to follow me on my tumblr (here!). If you do not have a tumblr I urge you to make one because they are fun! But if you would like to save yourself from another avenue of procrastination, I understand and you can always follow me via Feedburner (though this is not an avenue I would recommend? Mostly because tumblr also involves a lot of reblogging and on a good [or bad?] day I can reblog up to fifty things and your feed will be filled with all fifty of those things, in addition to any unique/original content) here. I am also, of course, on twitter and goodreads and you can always shoot me an email!
Thank you guys for sticking with me despite the silences and whatnot. And hopefully I will see many of you on tumblr.
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
I am up to my eyeballs in revisions, and have nine days of an executive residency to coordinate so this trailer of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince as a teen comedy is all you're getting from me. Laugh, friends, laugh! And try not to die before Friday.
Happy Monday!
 |
| Mad Men. |
This summer has been both rewarding and disappointing in terms of movies. There've been great hits (Harry Potter, I'm looking at you), crazy misses (why Sucker Punch, why?) - but over all, I and the sisters have been pleased. More often than not we've walked out of the theater thinking those $11 were well spent. But we've noticed something else, too - Hollywood likes to revise history. A lot.
It took a while before I noticed - for a while I was just glad that there were characters of color who a) didn't die off in the first half of the film or b) weren't cast as villains (and even some of my favorites couldn't deliver on this). But whenever I and the sisters sat down to discuss some of our favorite films of the summer, there was always that - something that was clearly inaccurate, or omitted. X-Men: First Class was a fantastic movie - great characterization, and the writers did a fantastic job of weaving the history of the '60's with the imagined world of the mutants. But there was a gaping hole - during the Cold War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis, Darwin's death and Angel's defection from the X-Men to what would become the Brotherhood of Mutants - the Civil Right's Movement. Gone. As if it had never existed or wouldn't impact the lives of the mutants (especially Darwin's, Angel's and Erik's).
More recently we went to see Captain America (okay film, more set up than anything else). Lo and behold, there is an African American who is part of the core team (yay!), fits no stereotypes, speaks French and attended university before he was drafted. But, as an op-ed pointed out in the New York Times, the United States Military wasn't integrated during the second World War. The African American men that were allowed to fight were segregated from white units for fear of polluting the rest of the military. Seeing Gabe Jones' character accepted and celebrated among his fellow soldiers (and not dead), though refreshing, was false. And it made me wonder: why write it that way? Why turn away from years of painful history? Why ignore it when the entire story is about wanting to belong, and loss and displacement?
Something I hear a lot from many different people doing different things is this: we live in post-race America. Our president is African American. People of color are doing all sorts of amazing things. There was the civil rights movement! Why are you guys (you guys being minorities, people of color, etc) so upset/angry/bitter about things that are no longer happening? Racism doesn't exist!
And so on and so forth. This is, of course, not true. But it becomes a little difficult to disprove, and very easy to see where these assumptions come from when the media depicts a world where racism never existed. How can it exist now, how can it be a fight we're still fighting, when it didn't exist then? And it makes me uncomfortable and sad that Hollywood erases these stories and in doing so, makes them irrelevant (or at least helps in making them so).
This is the reason I love Mad Men. The show is littered with moments of discomfort for the viewer - but it's accurate. The show depicts men and women dealing with misogyny and racism and the ways in which they work through that. It shows that we are now here because we were once there. And I think that is incredibly important.
What about you all? Opinions? Comments? Disagreement? I want to hear it!
Further reading: My Very Own Captain America, and Go#%$ Hollywood!
With yesterday being the first day of Ramadhan, my very shiny revision letter in hand, and August being the month the program that I work for officially opens, you can understand how I'm freaking out, just a teeny tiny bit. I'm going to be fasting 14 hours a day, running around crazy like trying to make sure all the things that we need to be done are done, and trying to break down a book I haven't looked at in over two months so that I can build it back up again.
Yesterday I stared at my laptop and basically shut down. This, my friends, is not the way to handle pressure. Not even a little bit. I am still trying to figure out a way to actually handle said pressure. For example, I meant to post this yesterday, but forgot because by 2pm I'd been caught by a caffeine headache. I will try to be more regular and handle the pressures August is throwing at me with more dignity. Until then, I leave you with this very lovely picture.
How are you all coping with the summer heat and end of summer stress?
Yesterday I stared at my laptop and basically shut down. This, my friends, is not the way to handle pressure. Not even a little bit. I am still trying to figure out a way to actually handle said pressure. For example, I meant to post this yesterday, but forgot because by 2pm I'd been caught by a caffeine headache. I will try to be more regular and handle the pressures August is throwing at me with more dignity. Until then, I leave you with this very lovely picture.
 | ||
| source |
 |
| source. |
- Make everything query specific. The notification on your phone, the labels in your inbox, the music you listen to - if you attach things to events make sure that you have things that are query specific and that you don't mind absolving yourself of after every thing winds down and you no longer want to vomit.
- Don't listen to your manuscripts soundtrack. I couldn't listen to We, the Risen's soundtrack, even if I had been so inclined. Anything associated with it made me want to throw myself off the edge of a cliff. But yesterday, a song that a played repeatedly during revisions showed up on Pandora and I could enjoy it without barfing. If I had listened to it during query time, I would have skipped it yesterday and possibly thrown myself out of my chair (as there was no cliff in sight).
- Don't read your manuscript while querying. This (like everything in this post) goes back to the vomit-y feeling that will attach. I think I spent the entire process trying to decide if I wanted to choke on my heart or throw up everything I had ever eaten. Just re-reading my query and the first ten pages I sent along made me nauseous. And I'm really, really glad I didn't reread it while I queried - doing revisions with a heart-in-your-throat feeling would not have been fun.
- Find a new project. One of the things that made waiting so much easier was planning other projects. I'd tell myself: even if We, the Risen doesn't work out, I have something else. I have a project that I am as passionate about, that I love as much, that is speaking to me as much as We, the Risen did. It meant that went rejections started coming in I didn't want to throw up as much. And it gave me hope because even if it hadn't worked out I had another piece of myself that I was working on.
- Lay off the coffee/caffeine. I know! I know. It sounds so ridiculous since most of run our lives on caffeine. But - and this might just be me - I had a lot of trouble eating while I queried. Breakfast became an optional meal, and lunch was sometimes cheese. When there is less food in your system, coffee can affect you in all the wrong ways. Shaky hands, headaches, wanting to throw up even more than before. I'm not saying give it up completely - but replace it with other things or cut back. Black tea is a good replacement. Or cut your two cups down to one. Or the espresso to regular coffee.
 |
| source. |
Wow. Thank you guys so, so much for all your congratulations and kind words.You have no idea how much I appreciate it, and how giddy I was (and still am!) as your kind words poured in. I'm still trying to figure out how to get back on track with blogging consistently while maintaining a certain level of quality, so bear with me please!
This post is one part thank you post and one part very flimsy how-to advice (because nothing works for everyone and what worked for me might not work for you).
Fact: I could not have revised my manuscript or gotten on the query train, or stayed on the query train (I think at one point I said:
I am incredibly blessed to have a mother and two sisters who have supported me every, single step of the way. I am doubly blessed to have friends in the young adult community who cheered me on all the time, who cheered me up when I was ready to throw the towel in, who made sure to tell me that what I was feeling was normal and that patience was necessary and that I was awesome (whether that's true is up for grabs, but flattery never hurts during any part of this process).
And I think the best and most important thing that I've taken away from this process** is that you need that. You need a support system that will prop you up when you want to fall down, who will force you back on the train while telling you that it's going to take you somewhere amazing. Whether you find them on Twitter (how I met Sarah), or on a forum (how I met Kristin and Dawn) or through their blog (how I met Tahereh), go out and meet people. Connect. Make friends. They will be invaluable once you get on that train (I really have a thing for trains today, I don't know why) and really, desperately want to jump off.
How have you all met friends and critique partners? And are you talkers or lurkers on blogs? Inquiring minds (aka the lurker) want to know!
*Apparently I also really like parenthetical asides today.
**Lord knows I didn't learn patience. Not even a little bit.
I finished the final draft of my book, We, the Risen, in May. I wrote a query, a synopsis and then I fired it out into the universe. The following two months were two of the hardest months of my life. I had nightmares (one which involved me being responsible for the death of an agent because my book was that bad), could not sleep and avoided work duties in favor of reloading my email.
I got a lot of really positive responses - and then one morning I woke up and there was an email that basically changed my world and also made me rip my hair out. An agent hadn't finished the book, but she loved it so far, and wanted to know who else it was out with.She'd be finished soon, she said, but to please let her know if anything changes in terms of my representation status.
To be honest, I hadn't thought I would hear back from this agent. She'd contacted me first two years ago about a novel that has, since then, been trunked. We kept in touch, and when I finished We, the Risen I sent it off to her, expecting to wait a very long time before I ever heard back.
Instead, a few days later I got the email - 'I'd love to set up a time to talk with you.'
Commence more hair ripping.
If I had gotten this email a year ago I would have jumped straight into 'this is an offer of representation'. But I'd heard enough to know that sometimes agents called to give you a revise and resubmit, or to (God forbid) offer you a very personal rejection. And to top it off, in my fear/euphoria/need to vomit I'd scheduled the phone call for five days later. I had a lot of nightmares. And did a lot of stalking. And also whined an incredible amount to all my wonderful friends. (Seriously, guys, thank you so so so much for listening to me belly ache about everything for the past two months.) The fifteen minutes before the call I think I nearly threw up twice, and hand my hands shook so much I could barely keep a grip on my phone.
But the call went wonderfully. Not only did she offer representation, she had such wonderful things to say about We, the Risen and understood my vision. By the end of the conversation, I knew. And I'm pretty sure in the blur that that afternoon was, that I said that.
The next day I sent her an email, and a few hours later I had a contract.
I am very very very very pleased and excited to say that I am now represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.
 |
| source. |
PERHAPS NOT TO BE IS TO BE WITHOUT YOUR BEING
pablo neruda
Perhaps not to be is to be without your being,
without your going, that cuts noon light
like a blue flower, without your passing
later through fog and stones,
without the torch you lift in your hand
that others may not see as golden,
that perhaps no one believed blossomed
the glowing origin of the rose,
without, in the end, your being, your coming
suddenly, inspiringly, to know my life,
blaze of the rose-tree, wheat of the breeze:
and it follows that I am, because you are:
it follows from ‘you are’, that I am, and we:
and, because of love, you will, I will,
We will, come to be.
 |
| source. |
1) Remember betas want to help you, not hurt you.
2) Remember whatever problems they say the story has, you can fix it.
3) Remember that betas give advice, not hard and fast rules.
4) Remember that you asked for their help and they're doing you a favor by reading.
5) Remember, in the end it's your story and up to you to decide what to do with it.
 |
| source. |
2) Drink your morning coffee out of a porcelain mug and teach your sisters what it means to start the day right aka with coffee.
3) Take long walks with your sister around the neighborhood and discuss the future.
4) Watch all the seasons of Friends at your disposal. Then go back and watch them again with your mom and sisters.
5) Watch Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back at 1am and realize that Yoda, after 30 years alone on Dagobah is fracking crazy and not at all the Zen Jedi master you learn to love in episodes 1 - 3.
6) Read, read, read until you can't anymore aka never stop. Realize that you may never measure up and move on.
7) Indulge in all the fanfiction you've been avoiding to finish up your book for hours. This is the best type of guilty pleasure.
8) Flip through your moleskine notebook and realize it's not over, it'll never be over.
9)Sit at the dining room table with your aunt and discuss the difference between coffee connoisseurs and coffee drinkers - determine that your mother is a coffee drinker and mourn the fate of her taste buds.
10) Relax. Seriously. The beta comments will show up eventually. School will start soon. Revel in these last days.
 |
| source. |
To greet the new year I've revamped the site layout with these funky colors (and thanks so much to colour lovers for the amazing background) as my way of greeting 2011 with love and high hopes for a successful year. Last year I did Through 2009 and What I Found There to reflect on the year. Here is Through 2010 and What I Found There:
1) Finished The Scion: The Scion was the second complete manuscript that I wrote and I loved it to bits. Unfortunately, I freaked out at the end and trunked it with hopes of a rewrite. In hindsight, I'm really glad I did. It gave me the time to improve my writing and gather the courage to really query and not just kind of query with a book that definitely wasn't my best. But just as The Pawn taught me how to finish a book, The Scion taught me how to write a book. And that's important.
2) Started two projects (Heart of Angelline and Eidolon): I started Eidolon in the very early days of the summer and trunked it around July and then started Heart of Angelline and trunked it in late October. Trunking both was really, really important because it taught me how to let go, when something is beyond fixing, when fixing something isn't worth it. I was of the opinion that if something wasn't working you could power through it and fix it in the end and I think this is still true for a lot of things. But there are times when it stops being true and it's important to recognize that and pull out.
3) My third creative writing workshop: This. There are no words for the roller coaster that this class was. I'm not going to lie: this class is part of the reason I managed to finish my last project. The professor was brilliant and I learned something I might have never known or managed to forget and it made writing not only easy but fun again. I'd forgotten how wonderful it is to be with your character to know everything about them to enjoy wrecking their lives and then fixing it again. And regardless of how psychotic my professor may have been they did teach me to write again and to stop getting twisted in so much of the business and focus on the craft of it.
4) Cutting back on my social life: I know this sounds kind of ridiculous to be a good thing but - yeah, it wasn't. My freshman year of college wasn't as stellar as I wanted it to be because I invested more time in hanging out and running around instead of buckling down and studying. Sophomore year was all about trying to find a balance between the two and this year (junior year) I think I've struck the balance. I'm doing much better in school, I enjoy the majority of my classes and I have time to write.
5) Finished the first draft of a project I am in love with: This felt like a break through for me. I love this project and I loved it when I started and I loved it even when I was going through revisions. I have never felt this way about a book that I wrote. I've loved characters and plot lines but I've never loved anything as wholly as I love this project.
That's my year in hindsight. Pretty quiet all things considered but I like quiet, thank God. Happy new year! May it be as fruitful or more so than 2010.
- When you're writing regularly.
- When you're not afraid of writing regularly.
- When you're trying something new with you're writing.
- Where things happen to come together without a mother effing outline (I KNOW GUYS I'M JUST AS SHOCKED AS YOU WHATTT??)
- When Tumblr and fanfiction are not enough to pull you out of that chapter you're writing because it is going so well.
- When you have four types of coffee creamer, three types of coffee (TWO OF WHICH ARE GODIVA OMG) and a bottle of coffee flavoring syrup (vanilla).
- When your roommates partake in your coffee addiction and recognize it for its wonder.
- When great things happen in life.
- When great things happen to friends.
- When that apple danish isn't finished but it's all yours.
- Porn is not suitable for workshop. Especially not in the first person. How am I supposed to look at you?
- Once you get started on fanfiction it is like a fraking addiction. You can't stop. You know you have to or you'll fail all your classes, but you can't. You. Just. Can't.
- Characters all need to have a purpose. Alas, convenience does not qualify as a purpose.
- My professor is really, in fact, a fraking psycho. I'm a little fearful and resentful. Also, perhaps plotting rebellion.
- I'm incredibly protective of my things: namely, coffee. If you use it and finish it, you must replace it people. I AM NOT A COFFEE MONEY MAKING MACHINE, GUYS. I'M JUST NOT.
- When you have entire days with nothing to do and instead of writing you are reading fanfiction.
- When you are trying to figure out what is wrong and not coming up with answers.
- When you are eying that stack of index cards so that you can rework your outline.
- When you are trying to connect the beginning that you've written with the end that you want to write.
- When you don't know what the ending you want to write actually is.
- When you are writing a post about how you know you're stuck.
When I first started at my university, I planned on taking creative writing classes. I think they're useful for polishing craft and learning about the way that other people both produce work and then revise it. But, I also knew (or thought I knew) that I would hate them. I expected pretentious professors, equally pretentious student and to not be taken seriously as a writer (because the only thing that I can ever turn out or enjoy turning out is speculative fiction).
I didn't take my first creative writing class (outside of high school, where I had an amazing experience with Mr. Cunningham) until the fall of my sophomore year. I was terrified but new that if I wanted to graduate with a creative writing degree or take independent study my junior and senior year, I would have to do it. I would have to deal with the demoralization.
Thank God, I didn't.
My first professor was amazing. She was a former editor for Playboy; she was vibrant, welcoming, and supportive. Before I'd ever told her I wanted to apply for the Creative Writing major, she told me that I should. When I expressed fear before my first workshop experience, she told me that I'd be fine, that the students were supportive, that even if they weren't, she would be. I came out of that class thinking, "I'm so blessed that my school is different" and happily applied for the following creative writing course. My experience in that class was even better. The focus was fiction writing (as opposed to my first class which was fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry) so I got to write a lot of what I wanted, when I wanted, how I wanted. My classmates were amazing, my professor was amazing, and my experience went beyond anything that I could have imagined. And when this professor recommended who to take for the sequential course, I happily took her recommendation.
I wish I hadn't.
The backbone of any creative writing class is the workshop. You submit your work to your classmates and they dissect it. They tell you what they liked, what worked, what they didn't like and what didn't work. For the workshop to work, the writer has to trust that her or his critics are honest and truthful and know what they're talking about. And the critics have to work to give the writer valuable feedback.
The professor has minimal involvement in this process. Their job is to monitor the discussion and make sure that it is helpful, to step in when they feel the students have gone off course, and to elaborate on points that they think are important. If a workshop is going well, you should never hear the professors voice: they already know what to do - it's the students' opportunity to learn how to give critique and take critique.
My current professor is one in an amazing department at my university. But she makes me question how she could have been teaching creative writing for ten years. The workshop, which I considered a safe and often times empowering enviroment, is now - in her class - something I don't want any part in. Not only does she dominate the discussion, thereby removing the students' ability to learn, but she does it rudely. She interrupts students making points, and when she does make points, they are usually unrelated to the discussion. Yesterday, she pantomimed a passage from the work we were workshopping, and ranted for more than five minutes about how horrible, terrible and poorly written it was. In front of the writer. In front of the entire class. I was too mortified to look at the writer.
This cannot happen.
A workshop is supposed to be a safe environment where you can submit work and hope to improve. It's not an opportunity to rant on how much you hate a style. And it can be effective in deterring a person from writing or taking your criticisms seriously when you do what the professor did. Now, I don't want to submit to the class. I don't want to be in this class at all. And if I didn't need it to qualify for independent study in the spring, I would drop it right now.
If you'd like, feel free to share your horror stories and your good stories about creative writing professors. Who's shaped you as a writer and who has done the opposite?
The twitter giveaway is still going! I'll be giving away two books today since I forgot about it yesterday. Look forward to it! :) And have a great week!
So, I've been trying to write this post for two weeks. And then I went to see Inception and wanted to combine that post with something that struck me while I was watching it. But the two ideas, while compatible, could serve as two separate posts, so this post I will be talking about stakes and then the next post I will be talking about killing, and then after that I will tell you about the pitfalls of being both a writer and an English Literature student at the university level.
Right. So. STAKES.
Please be aware that this post will include spoilers for Inception. Which you should have seen. I am always the very last person to see a movie. And I have seen it. Therefore, you should have seen it as well.
The stakes in the movie are very clear from the get go. Cobb, with the help of trusty sidekicks, must plan an idea in the mind of Fischer, Jr. In return, he will be able to return to his family, from which he has been separated from on account of the United States government wanting to lock him up. The inception will take place on a plane headed for Los Angeles - if he doesn't succeed, the authorities will arrest him the minute he touches down on US soil. If he does, he's a free man.
And then it was.
Before I tell you how it was, let's back up. Because one thing went into making this moment SO OMG WHAT WHAT WHAT?!
I loved Saito. I loved him so much. I was invested in his fate.
So when he was shot, I was horrified that they might give him the kick and then he would be gone for the rest of the movie. No. No they didn't. Instead, he was actually dying and if he did die, he would float down to limbo and sit there, forgetting about reality, until he actually died.
And suddenly, Cobb and Company have an entirely new, just as pressing, reason to complete the mission in the alloted time. Because they could lose Saito forever. And Saito is the key to Cobb getting his family back. He's the only one who can make it happen.
This is what I've been trying to do with my work. Because you can't just have stakes. You have to have stakes that matter. And they have to be deeply enmeshed with the rest of the story - with its characters, with the story line, with the inevitability of whatever resolution it must come to. And finding those stakes is hard. Finding it in yourself to put those stakes to the test, to the very limit is sometimes even harder.
How do you guys do it? Any good examples? TELL ALL, IF YOU PLEASE.
 |
| Credit goes to Jordin Robin |
One thing I never talk about is fear. Because I like to avoid any and all mentions of fear and just keep trudging along with blinders on. But I've decided (in lieu of a revelation and a panic attack) that maybe I should tackle that topic today.
I've written two completed manuscripts. They are sitting in my little cyber drawers, gathering dust. The first terrified me so much that I never even revised it. I made revision notes, started school and then locked it away. The second I revised, received some agent interest, sent out to betas, queried only a very little (read, three times) and then decided I wanted to rewrite. The rewrite has exploded into something amazing and beautiful and I love it.
But I loved my first two manuscripts, too. I loved them so much. I wrote 20k of The Scion in one week - that's how much I loved it. And I wrote nearly (or more) than 80k of The Pawn (I don't want to talk about how INCREDIBLY MAMMOTH that book is) over the course of three months. I went on writing frenzies, and made covers and playlists and drowned myself in the worlds that I created. But when it came time to buck up and start sending out queries and trying to get my work out there, I freaked.
I love my work. I love it so much. So I'm not objective. I'm not a good judge of how publishable or marketable or good my work is. I don't write for trends. I don't write to please anyone but me. I write what I want and hope that in the end it's good enough, gripping enough, emotional enough, that the world will want to read it. That the world will want to pay to read it.
And I'm afraid. I'm so afraid that it's not good enough. That it's not gripping enough. That it's not emotional enough. I struggle and I gripe and I lay in bed at night avoiding thoughts of sending out queries and having other people who have the ability to reject me read it.
The fear dies down. It always does. But when it's there, it's crippling. Rejection is a reality in this business. Someone, somewhere is going to not like what I write. And I have to trust in the goodness of my work and in the honesty of my beta readers. I have to trust that when I see a problem or one is pointed out to me I will work and work hard to fix it. That I will do what I have to do and buck up and be a writer.
I have to ask? Do you guys deal with this issue? How? I could seriously use some answers, haha.
- If you know you need coffee to run on a full day, go to sleep at midnight (NO LATER!) and drink coffee at 4:30am (when you have to wake up for one of two meals you're getting that day). Otherwise, withdrawal symptoms will appear and you will suffer. A lot.
- Eat filling breakfasts. Note: filling and big are not the same. Oatmeal is good for tiding a person over the sixteen hours that you will be without food (and coffee).
- If you know that you will be hungry by 2pm and you want to get writing done that day, write in the morning. Especially if you're a desk monkey with nothing to do except play Adventure Time games and watching The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack on your laptop. (Yes. I know. My life is sad.)
- You can't think on an empty stomach that wants to eat you. It's. Not. Possible.
- Seriously, though - write in the morning. You have to sleep early so that you can get up to eat at 4:30am. And you can't write between Taraweeh (that ends at 11) and midnight. Plus there's school. This is really in your best interest.
What - if anything - have you learned in the past month (doesn't have to be Ramadhan related!)?
This is sort of a cop out post. I swear, I have one post ready and a second jingling around in my head and they will be put up. It's just I've become super dependent on coffee and since it's Ramadhan, no coffee for me. So, I've been walking around in a daze, stumbling through my day until dinner and then alternately passing out from food comas or (the horror!) doing school work. My vacation turned out to not be much of a vacation and I didn't get nearly as much work done as I would have liked - but worry not - things will be back in order soon enough! And don't forget to check out my post at Kirsten's blog, here! In the mean time: ta da!
I have been agonizing over a cover for my work in progress for weeks and months. Usually they come to me fully formed, but this just...refused to produce itself. Until this morning. Now I have a shiney cover for my work in progress (which is a new novel masquerading as a rewrite of The Scion). And with it, I have the first 600 or so words. To read the query, click here.
Behzad had known that he would be hunting her. What she hadn’t known was how fast he would find her. It made sense, though. She had left the castle half drunk more than two weeks ago and the trail she had left behind made it easy to follow. When two days passed, and then three and four, she thought she’d lost him. When the first and then second weeks had passed without any sign of him finding her, she had slowed down.
This morning, he had appeared, his Presence flickering at the edge of her mind like a candle flame; strong enough to let her know he was coming, but weak enough to obscure from where.
Behzad stuffed her materials into her pack as quickly as she dared. She kicked dirt over what remained of the fire, taking care not to jostle her left side too much. A fall two days ago had cracked her ribs and Soul-sworn or not, it would take another two days to heal.
It took her five minutes of fast walking to realize that she wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace necessary to stay ahead of Mihar. She had barely left her campsite behind and already there was a layer of sweat on her skin.
“Move it, girl,” she gritted out and pushed herself off a tree. She had gotten soft in the last six months, too used to lying in a soft bed and drinking good wine.
The stream was her breaking point. It was too deep and had too many rocks to attempt passage. The water was too cold to even drink, let alone wade through. She let her pack slide off her shoulder and considered dropping to her knees.
The Presence that flared to life behind her nearly drove her to it. She turned around slowly and there he was, perched like some creature on a tree branch.
Mihar Mahburzin, of the House of the Moon of the territory Sardis, Steward of the De’Aldar Province in the King’s name. He was also her jailer.
Behzad had seen this spot in her head a thousand times. There were many differences since she had been here last. For one, she had been eleven, not seventeen. Her hair had been braided tightly, not a tangled, dirty mess as it was now. She’d been wearing clean trousers, and a newly embroidered blouse. The trees had been bare and snow had covered the stream banks.
Most important, however, was that it had been her up on a tree branch, and Mihar down by the stream.
Mihar straightened up from his crouch and stepped off the branch. His descent dislodged orange and red autumn leaves. They swirled around him when he landed and she half expected them to catch fire, his Presence was so bright.
He watched her through narrowed eyes, his steps measured and slow as he walked towards her. She didn’t bother running; if her ribs didn’t stop her, Mihar would.
His dark skin was clear of dirt, his hair free of leaves and tied neatly at his neck. He didn’t look as if he’d spent the last two and a half weeks trekking through the mountains. Of the two of them, he certainly should have been royalty.
But no. That had been her unfortunate lot.
“What happened?” he asked. She tried not to flinch away from his eyes. Six months ago she had been good at hiding her injuries. Now she couldn’t even walk around a minor injury.
She didn’t answer as he picked up her bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“Are you going to bind my wrists?” she asked.
He snorted. “I’m your caretaker, not your jailer.”
“That’s the same thing if I can’t come and go as I please.”
“There’s a difference between coming and going, and running away to Yanokiri.”
Images used to make this cover are credited to Auroradreams, Shinobinaku, Funerium, and Resurgere.
ON THE RAVENS WINGS INTERVIEW SERIES
On the Raven’s Wings is an interview series presented by Sumayyah of The Raven Desk blog. It interviews aspiring writers (both agented and un-agented alike) to get their perspective on writing, the business and life. This week, I'm interviewing Vee (known as Ink on the AbsoluteWrite forums). Welcome, Vee!
Q: Why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
A:Oh God, I hate this question. Mostly because there aren’t many things about me that are quantifiable that I can say (this is a complicated way to say I’m boring). I’ll stick to the basics: I’m seventeen, I like to write and I’m currently working on my third novel while querying the shit out of the second.
Q: What genre do you write? What attracted you to this genre?
A:I write YA – all sorts, dystopian, fantasy, contemporary. Maybe I just write in this genre because I’m a teen and I’m writing what I know, but I like to think it’s more than that. I like to think I write about teens because there’s something about the feelings explored in YA fiction that just floors me – wanderlust, coming of age, self actualization. These are all things I want to explore in my writing, and YA allows me to do that.
Q: What are you currently working on at the moment? How was the story inspired?
A:I’m working on an urban fantasy with dystopian elements currently titled PIPER’S REALM. I guess I got inspired when I was doing edits of my other novels and noticed that pretty much all of them have a reference to the Pied Piper. There’s something about the myth of a person who can lure children with music that fascinates me. So I decided to write a story about a girl who knows and falls in love with the Pied Piper without knowing that’s what he is.
Q: Is there a place you like to go to write? Are there any rituals you stick to when writing a story?
A:I write every day and I guess that’s my ritual. In my moleskines. On the laptop. On my arms. Writing as body art is actually quite fun. I strongly recommend it.
Q: What is your favorite thing about writing? Why?
A: I’m going to cheat and say two things. The first is playing God. This is especially true when I write books that are fantastical enough to have alternate universes, like PIPER’S REALM. Not only do I get to create people and shuffle them through situations that are awkward, poignant and funny, I also get to slip into a mystical realm for a little while. And anyone who knows me will tell you that I live for escapism.
The second thing is putting a little piece of myself out into the world. I know the world rails against self-insertion and Mary Sues and whatever else, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ideas that are always spinning in my head. Every book that I write is a snapshot of my frame of mind at a certain point in my life, and even if I don’t know what that frame of mind is now, twenty years from now when I read these novels, I’ll hopefully be able to work it out
Q: If you had to pick a soundtrack for your current WIP, what songs/bands would be on it?
A:Muse. I think everyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I’m a massive Muse fangirl (maybe it’s a sign that I’m the new Stephenie Meyer?). Songs like Unintended, Nature and Bliss by Muse are on my playlist.
But for PIPER’S REALM, I really have to give props to MGMT. The book has a very surreal feel to it and watching the Electric Feel video on repeat gets me in the right mood to write about my false paradise. Also, thanks to you Sumayyah, for recommending the Fountain OST to me.
Other artists on my playlist: Radiohead, Pavement, Arctic Monkeys, Weezer (old school), Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, Kasabian, The Kooks, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson , Imogen Heap and Schubert.
Q: What is your favorite thing about your current work? Who is your favorite character to write?
A:Riley van Harlen, hands down. Just for the name, obviously. And then there’s the fact that in order to create a truly conflicted character I decided to draw on the myth of the Pied Piper and then combine it with Peter Pan. Riley is both Captain Hook and Peter and my dystopian world is a Neverland of sorts with a contemporary twist.
Q: What plans do you have for the future writing wise? Any new ideas in your mind?
A:This year is going to be all about querying and finding the right person to represent my work. As for long term plans with writing – I just want to get better, and I eventually want to be able to do this full time, whether it’s when I’m twenty-six of sixty. And like choco and some of the other twifties, I want to be living in a castle.
The SNI (Shiny New Idea for those of you who don’t frequent Absolute Write) I’m currently in love with is called THE GNOME IS WATCHING. It’s about a girl whose best friend commits suicide in her garden during a party. But as the book unfolds (and there’s some pretty psycho edgy stuff as it unfolds, like human dartboards, because this novel is a bit Fight Club-esque) it becomes clear that she didn’t want to kill herself – someone pushed her. The question is who. The answer is…Not telling.
Q: What keeps you from losing interest in your work? How do you make sure you finish a project?
A:I subscribe to the BIC method (Butt in Chair). I also eat a lot of chocolate and cookies during drafts and if I’m stuck with anything I listen to Weezer. Weezer is my ultimate no-more-writers-block music. Sometimes I make up words like I did in that last sentence and it helps me loosen up.
Q: What’s the best part of finishing up a novel?
A:You get closure and this massive sense of accomplishment. It’s like, hell, I might have failed calculus to do this but here’s this product and it’s so tangible and real and wonderful (even if it’s a shitty first draft).
I love the idea that something that was nothing more than an errant thought in my head can become something other people can read. That I can give people a ‘grand tour’ of my mind, I guess.
Q: What advice do you have for writers, both veteran and amateur?
A: Taking advice from me is a really bad idea.
But I guess I’d say just keep on writing, because if you keep on going you’re bound to write something that resonates one day. Also, don’t dream of becoming the next Austen – just sets you up for failure.
A:I write every day and I guess that’s my ritual. In my moleskines. On the laptop. On my arms. Writing as body art is actually quite fun. I strongly recommend it.
Q: What is your favorite thing about writing? Why?
A: I’m going to cheat and say two things. The first is playing God. This is especially true when I write books that are fantastical enough to have alternate universes, like PIPER’S REALM. Not only do I get to create people and shuffle them through situations that are awkward, poignant and funny, I also get to slip into a mystical realm for a little while. And anyone who knows me will tell you that I live for escapism.
The second thing is putting a little piece of myself out into the world. I know the world rails against self-insertion and Mary Sues and whatever else, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the ideas that are always spinning in my head. Every book that I write is a snapshot of my frame of mind at a certain point in my life, and even if I don’t know what that frame of mind is now, twenty years from now when I read these novels, I’ll hopefully be able to work it out
Q: If you had to pick a soundtrack for your current WIP, what songs/bands would be on it?
A:Muse. I think everyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I’m a massive Muse fangirl (maybe it’s a sign that I’m the new Stephenie Meyer?). Songs like Unintended, Nature and Bliss by Muse are on my playlist.
But for PIPER’S REALM, I really have to give props to MGMT. The book has a very surreal feel to it and watching the Electric Feel video on repeat gets me in the right mood to write about my false paradise. Also, thanks to you Sumayyah, for recommending the Fountain OST to me.
Other artists on my playlist: Radiohead, Pavement, Arctic Monkeys, Weezer (old school), Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, Kasabian, The Kooks, Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson , Imogen Heap and Schubert.
Q: What is your favorite thing about your current work? Who is your favorite character to write?
A:Riley van Harlen, hands down. Just for the name, obviously. And then there’s the fact that in order to create a truly conflicted character I decided to draw on the myth of the Pied Piper and then combine it with Peter Pan. Riley is both Captain Hook and Peter and my dystopian world is a Neverland of sorts with a contemporary twist.
Q: What plans do you have for the future writing wise? Any new ideas in your mind?
A:This year is going to be all about querying and finding the right person to represent my work. As for long term plans with writing – I just want to get better, and I eventually want to be able to do this full time, whether it’s when I’m twenty-six of sixty. And like choco and some of the other twifties, I want to be living in a castle.
The SNI (Shiny New Idea for those of you who don’t frequent Absolute Write) I’m currently in love with is called THE GNOME IS WATCHING. It’s about a girl whose best friend commits suicide in her garden during a party. But as the book unfolds (and there’s some pretty psycho edgy stuff as it unfolds, like human dartboards, because this novel is a bit Fight Club-esque) it becomes clear that she didn’t want to kill herself – someone pushed her. The question is who. The answer is…Not telling.
Q: What keeps you from losing interest in your work? How do you make sure you finish a project?
A:I subscribe to the BIC method (Butt in Chair). I also eat a lot of chocolate and cookies during drafts and if I’m stuck with anything I listen to Weezer. Weezer is my ultimate no-more-writers-block music. Sometimes I make up words like I did in that last sentence and it helps me loosen up.
Q: What’s the best part of finishing up a novel?
A:You get closure and this massive sense of accomplishment. It’s like, hell, I might have failed calculus to do this but here’s this product and it’s so tangible and real and wonderful (even if it’s a shitty first draft).
I love the idea that something that was nothing more than an errant thought in my head can become something other people can read. That I can give people a ‘grand tour’ of my mind, I guess.
Q: What advice do you have for writers, both veteran and amateur?
A: Taking advice from me is a really bad idea.
But I guess I’d say just keep on writing, because if you keep on going you’re bound to write something that resonates one day. Also, don’t dream of becoming the next Austen – just sets you up for failure.
Vee has since completed her search for an agent and is paired with the fabulous Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. Her novel THE COLORS OF SKY is currently on submission with publishers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
