Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sillas

I have a horrid case of writer's block, one that incredibly stems from the loss of my favourite chair. I got it at the thrift store five years ago for a whopping twenty bucks. It was a plush yellow curvy thing that you sank right into. It was like sitting in a hug and it nurtured my creativity (or at least my ass) wonderfully.

I can't believe I am this upset over a chair... Sigh.

Speaking of furniture, I went to the Dali museum yesterday. He was a strange odd little man. I was moved by his devotion to his wife and muse, Gala, though and wished I could have found more about her at the museum.
I bought myself a pair of earrings and a mug at the gift shop and I kept jumping between feeling giddy and being slightly ashamed this great man is reduced to keychains and umbrellas. The mug I got is in Japanese and I couldn't pass it up.

I also went down to the pier yesterday where I ate entirely too much junk and had a headache the rest of the day. Which sucked because we had family over playing Rock Band II and the drums were killing me. I called it a night early and fell asleep after trying to write a bit.

Of course I didn't write anything.

I really miss my chair.


- Posted from my mobile device.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

SOTW: Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt


Song of the Week: Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt by We Are Scientists


Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mary, Full of Grace: Chapter 2 Teaser



“How does this house get so damn dusty?” Marianne swept the bundle of feathers over the top of the bookcase, making a large cloud of dust billow up towards her face. She let out a few hacking coughs and a sneeze for good measure. The chair she was standing on rocked causing Marianne to yelp.


Mary, who was sitting on a blanket on the floor near the couch, began to giggle.


“Your mother is amusing, isn’t she, Mary?” Marianne tossed the duster to the floor and climbed down the chair she had been using to reach the top shelves. “Your father, on the other hand, is not amusing at all. In fact,” she turned toward the kitchen and bellowed, “He should be in here helping!”


“I’m not listening!” He called back.


Marianne picked the feather duster back up and shook it in his general direction. This made Mary laugh even harder and she threw herself back, her thin little legs sticking up in the air. Marianne watched warmly as her daughter became enthused with the socks on her feet and pulled them off.


“I just put those on you, Mary!” Marianne sighed then turned around and began to dust the bottom shelf.


Jimmy, being an accountant, had a large collection of books; algebra, statistics, and economics were his favorites and there were countless texts were stuffed into the Brandon bookcase. They didn’t interest Marianne at all and, if she had had her way, they would have stayed behind in the move. After all, how practical were statistics in one's daily life? Her thoughts were interrupted when a few books slid off the shelf. She jumped back so they wouldn’t fall on her feet as they settled into a heap on the floor.


“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” She had tossed the duster aside and was gathering her skirts to kneel when something pink caught her eye. Moving the top books aside, she found what she was looking for; one of the heavier books had fallen open and, nestled between the pages, there was a single blossom.


Marianne picked up the book and scanned the cover. It was a mathematics book indeed, something only Jimmy would read. But why would he be keeping a flower in a geometry book? It appeared to have been there for some time by the way it was paper-thin and completely dry. Marianne stroked it gingerly and pursed her lips.


“Honey?” She called out to her husband.


“Not now, dear,” Jimmy replied in a sing-song voice.


Marianne let out a huff and walked towards the kitchen. When she entered, Jimmy was sitting at the table with piles of paperwork on either side of him. He held a small stub of a pencil in one hand and was mumbling numbers to himself, writing with a frantic pace in his notebook. Marianne cleared her throat to get his attention. “Jimmy?”


He looked up, his smile disappearing quickly when he noticed the book in her hand. “Marianne, what are you doing with that?”

Mary, Full of Grace

So...I started a Twilight fanfic called Mary, Full of Grace. It's only two chapters in but I hope people give it a shot. Honestly, the thought of writing a story is terrifying. I don't have a stellar education, English is not my first language (or even the one I primarily speak at home), and I don't know where I'm going to squeeze time in. I must admit, however, that writing this has been the most fun I have had in months. This story has been begging to get out of me and hopefully I'll do it justice.

I'll be posting a teaser right after this. First I wanted to address some things that keep coming up. These are non-spoilers as far as I can tell. I'll be updating this frequently.

FAQ

How often do you update?
I'm trying to update every two weeks.

Do you respond to every review?
Yes. I still have some prologue reviews to catch up on (about five) but after that, every review gets a reply and a teaser.

Why is the story starting in 1910 instead of 1901?
People might think that's a product of bad research but it's not. I know Alice is supposed to be born in 1901 (sorta, maybe, no one knows for sure). I love the idea of proving canon wrong. Alice is the only character we know almost nothing about pre-bite. The Lexicon has "1901?" next to Alice's birth date and the only other certain pre-Twilight date is 1948, when she meets Jasper. I think making the date completely wrong sends a strong message that we really don't know a thing about Mary Alice Brandon.

Will the entire story take place in the past?
I'm not sure. I've thought of maybe going back to Franny at some point in the middle but we'll see where the characters want to go.

What's with the dialects?
Biloxi was a melting pot of people, even back in 1910. It had Hispanic families, Black families, Cajuns, Southerners, you name it. Although I ran out of space to make it clear, the families in the story are diverse. For example, the Lopez's are Hispanic, and the Pleasants are African American. Some of the families are scholarly, some have never set a foot into a classroom. This leaves us with different styles of speaking. It's clear in the way Edith uses an mix of slang while Mr. Brandon is quite formal.

Monday, September 07, 2009

SOTW: Dig


Song of the Week: Dig by Incubus (Live version)