Friday, November 29, 2019

The Shared WIP Tag Week Five: Snippets

So NaNo is almost over and I will admit that I definitely petered out. Actually I didn't even start strong. A word of advice. Don't spend the months leading up to NaNo speed writing a 150k long book. You will murder your brain faster than any of the fancy villains in the books you are writing can. But oh well, I may not have written much on my projects but I had fun and it was the break my brain needed.

Anyway, NaNo progress report:

Project: Darkness From the Stars
Total word count for NaNo: 10,167 words (though I will probably try to get a few extra in before the end of the month)
Total chapters: I started chapter five
So far there has been one death, RIP Pimberly.



-Line you’re most likely to cut in revisions?

Still not sure about this line if it even fits.

"The process of getting ready for a ball is akin to torture. Except the person doing it thinks that they are doing you a favor. And I haven’t a clue whether true merciless evil of someone wanting to do you harm or the false sense of kindness of someone who thinks they know what is best for you is more painful. But I would hazard to say that they are equally painful in their own ways."


-Line you’re most proud of?

I have my own spoilery reasons for liking this line mwahahahah....

"Mr. Wintersleeve shoots me a look so scathing that it feels half like it pierced me through. “I think the true problem here is the willful desire to not see things that are clearly there.”"

-Line that made you cry while you were writing it?

So I didn't actually cry with this line, but I nearly did.

"He raises a trembling hand to rest it on my cheek. I hadn’t noticed before that his hand was shaking. No, his whole body was wracked with tremors. “Astra, whatever happens, know that I love you. Love you as my own child.”"

-Piece of dialogue that made you laugh out loud, shiver or flail?

Probably the longest snippet I will share today, but I can't help it. This one had me cackling as I wrote about my poor dear Edgar trying to be "polite" oh the humor of it all.

"Henry nods toward us. “And Edgar, these are my dear friends Miss Miranda Addington and Miss Astra Dempshire.”
“Dempshire?” Mr. Wintersleeve says his gaze sharpening on me. “That name is familiar.”
Henry leads toward him, dropping his voice but not quietly enough that I don’t hear. “It is her family hosting the ball.”
Mr. Wintersleeve furrows his brows further. “Are they? Well, you have a lovely parlor, Miss Dempshire.”
“It’s a ballroom.”
Mr. Wintersleeve’s eyebrows shoot up. “A ballroom?”
“Yes,” I say hardly able to contain my mirth. I’m certain that Mr. Wintersleeve is not actually an idiot, he appears to have an intelligent gleam in his eyes. But then perhaps if he speaks much more then that will become nothing more than just a gleam. “It is a room in which balls are usually held.”
Miranda steps on my foot, forcibly, if not painfully reminding me that as amusing it would be to mock Mr. Wintersleeve further, perhaps he is not someone to mock. I press my lips together and hold out my hand, returning to the boring confines of social refinement. “Anyway I am charmed to make your acquaintance.”
Mr. Wintersleeve stares at my hand for a long moment as if half expecting to find an Infected bite there. He leans closer to Henry. “Is it now fashionable to shake a lady’s hand on acquaintance?”
Henry shoots Mr. Wintersleeve a stunned look. “Heavens no, Edgar you are supposed to kiss it.”
Mr. Wintersleeve pulls back shooting Henry a look as if he had grown not only a second head, but a third as well. “Kiss her? That seems quite unseemly, and I must say that she is certainly not handsome enough to tempt me so early into our acquaintance.”"

-Line that made you stop writing for a minute so you could process it

"My eyes drop to the ground before I even realize what I am doing and I find myself staring into the blank eyes of Uncle Pimberly.
His body drops to the ground a second later."

-Favorite snippet that describes a place or character?

Probably this one where I just set aside several paragraphs to describe my darling Henry XD

"Henry, however, is a very humble gentleman and doesn’t put on any airs despite his heritage and everyone’s great esteem of him. He legitimately does not think himself better than anyone, and makes that fact very clear. Because of this, he seems to be a friend of everyone in society including me, and Miranda, and frankly everyone. Henry does not know a stranger."

-Line you can hardly believe you wrote (whether that's positive or negative is up to you)

I was essentially like O.O when I wrote this line:

"Most people were quite eager to leave. You know what they say. It’s all fun and games till someone gets decapitated."

-A snippet where even you aren’t entirely sure what’s happening. 

This little gem of dialogue got a tad odd and problem is I don't even know if the "accident" discussed was an accident or not. So yeah... definitely in the dark here XD

"“He has since then spent nearly five years battling the Infected on the front lines.”
I don’t know if my brother’s voice drips with envy or just mockery.
Sedgewick didn’t even last a year.
“That was until his disappearance for a good six months as well as his entire regiment. That was quite the talk at the time. Not as much talk as his return or his injury. How he was found wandering the wastelands half out of his mind with a gaping hole in his shoulder and somehow not infected. Of course, nobody assumes Mr. Wintersleeve inflicted that wound upon himself,” Sedgewick mutters bitterly sinking further into his cushions. “And there was no witness for that injury either to prove that it was not him.”
“There is a good difference between being impaled and shooting yourself in the foot. One is significantly easier to do.”
Sedgewick shoots her a hard look. “I know very well how easy it is to be shot in the foot. All sorts of things can happen to lead to such a wound. Guns can misfire, especially if they are tampered with.”"

-Weird thing you had to Google mid-writing-session.

Military titles XD

-Beginning sentence and ending sentence (if possible without spoilers).

Since I didn't finish the book I'll just post the last sentence that I wrote *shrugs*

First sentence: "It is a fact that is commonly assumed that any single woman must be in want of a husband, and one with a significant fortune at that."

Last Sentence from the middle of chapter five XD: "I need more help than heaven can give. Of course she will expect me to pursue Mr. Wintersleeve. Never mind the fact that he is a cold blooded killer. He is a wealthy and powerful cold blooded killer so of course everything is fine."

Anyway that's all for today, let's sit back and congratulate ourselves on surviving NaNo. Some survived better than others for sure, but we all did great if you ask me XD

Don't forget to check out the other participants in the Shared WIP Tag and their awesome stories

Lila: https://lilakimswriter.blogspot.com/
Julian: juliandaventrymemories.blogspot.com

at 6 comments:

Friday, November 22, 2019

The Shared WIP Tag Week Four: Side Characters// in which I have too many of them and love them more than I should

So I have to admit that I am pretty excited for this week's topic. Because if you guys know anything about me it is that I love side characters too much. It's a problem because I tend to spend more time on them than even my own main characters and end up writing six spin offs about them XD But anyway today we are focusing on the side characters in DFTS and... well I have a lot. Because this book is sort of a family drama a lot of them are related.


-If you had to go on a mission with any of your SCs, which one(s) would you pick?

Um so I would probably pick Astra's older sister Penelope and Penelope's fiance Dr. Collin Arnold. While I honestly wouldn't want to go anywhere without the resident zombie slayer (Edgar, but because he is a MC that is not currently available to me), I think these two would be a good substitute. They are an amazing team, both extremely intelligent (between the three of us we may figure out how to think ourselves out of getting eaten) Penelope in a more practical and outcunning way and Collin in a by the book way. Plus he is a doctor so we are covered if any of us are injured. Also due to Collin's natural good nature, I know that they would not leave me behind if the going went rough.

-Which of your side characters attempts to steal attention from the MC the most?

For this question I am going to go with Henry Hearth, Edgar's amiable cousin, and also Thomas, Astra's younger brother. Both gentlemen are very outgoing and talkative on top of being good friends. The first time I was writing this book it was essentially Thomas and Henry doing all the talking and having a jolly good time while Astra and Edgar glared at each other in the background.

-Which SC would annoy you the most and which one would you bond with the most?

I would probably be annoyed with Shannon, Astra's youngest sister the most girl is unnecessarily dramatic and I'm just like plz stop. And bond with oh, surprisingly Sedgewick, the middle Dempshire brother. He is such a grump and genuinely hates everyone and I just. I relate because also secretly he loves everyone even though he hates them. It's complicated and we don't talk about it.

-Which SC would you be most attracted to, romantically or platonically?

Romantically? Collin for sure, I have almost as big of a crush on this soft, smart, and quiet character as I do on Edgar himself. Platonically? Oh Henry that dude is legitimately the nicest person I have ever written he is amazing.

-Would you fit in with your SCs collectively, or would they not be your type of friend group?

 Actually I feel like I would? Because they are such a large eclectic group that I think that there is enough personality that I would fit in really well. Henry and Thomas will make sure that everyone is included and I think that I would have a lot of fun just hanging out with Penelope and Collin and then there are the people who no one likes and everyone just sorts of tolerates and that is honestly the way all of my friend groups were so yeah...

-If your SCs are not all friends, what would result if you were to thrust them together as a group and assign them an activity?

 Like not all of them are friends, for instance everyone hates Sedgewick, but especially Miranda and those two wouldn't stop army to get anything done. Henry and Thomas would spend the whole time trying to make peace and Collin and Penelope probably decided to go off and just do the project. By Shannon probably sabotaged it somehow and probably the whole thing is just on fire to be honest.

-Which SC would fit into our world the most?

Probably Miranda, Astra's best friend, she is very forward thinking and progressive and I think she would just have a blast in the 21st century.

-Which SC makes you laugh the most?

 Henry, this dude is a good conversationalist, he is very charming and makes me chuckle.

-Which SC could probably get removed without affecting much of the story?

That would unfortunately be Richard, the eldest of the Dempshire siblings, and his family. He is already happily married and making a life for himself so is actually in this book very little.

-Which SC could never get removed because of how important their role is?

 *inhaled deeply* *releases screech* HEEEEENNNNNRRRRYYYYYYY

 I don't think I can properly stress how much I love this dude. But also Collin who is suddenly insanely important and integral to the plot even though he didn't even exist when this draft started.

 but anyway I hope that is a relatively good introduction to my unruly cast. As far a NaNo is going I made it to 10k *dies*

Lila: https://lilakimswriter.blogspot.com/
Julian: juliandaventrymemories.blogspot.com
at 3 comments:

Friday, November 15, 2019

The Shared WIP Tag Week 3: Main Character and Antagonist// There has been a change of plans



Okay so a lot happened over the course of a week. As I'm sure you all saw in my last post, I finished SoS, and I was extremely tired afterwards so that feat didn't exactly get the amount of screaming, freaking out, and flailing that it deserved. As I took the weekend off to rest so that I will be ready to start MoC on Monday I realized something. I wasn't actually excited for this story. I then realized that I was pushing myself too hard. First to finish ToT, then to finish SoS, and then MoC, all in the span of a few months without any break whatsoever.

So that is when I decided to not work on MoC this month. And yes, that means that it will be published later than I had previously expected. I've been reconsidering the planned publishing dates for all of my upcoming novels, they now mostly all have new publishing dates. Ones that are much more realistic. If you are at all curious about the fate of any of the books you have been looking forward to, feel free to ask and I will let you know my new plan for it.

In the meantime I still am doing NaNo, just with a new project. Leave it to me to start a project on the 12th of November (the day in which I actually decided to start this book). Is there no end to my insanity? Apparently not.

Anyway this book is actually one that I had started back in September, but had to put aside to focus fully on SoS. I had been about to announce it but then I went on hiatus all through October so I guess an introduction to this story is long overdue. And then we will get back to the Shared WIP Tag XD

Anyway, with all due fanfare I give you...

Darkness From the Stars



Think Beauty and the Beast, meets the X-Files, with a mix of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Rook and you will basically have an idea for this odd little story that absolutely refuses to be defined by genre. It is equal parts historical in that the setting is very Regency Era-esque, but also science fiction taking in a future somewhat apocalyptic world with zombies. A future, Regency Era themed apocalyptic world with zombies. Add into the mix a healthy dose of family drama, horror, and mystery respectively and there you go. You have Darkness From the Stars.

This story is actually a very old one. The original concept came from my submission to the Rooglewood Press Five Enchanted Roses anthology. That submission was titled Beauty of the Stars and essentially nothing, absolutely nothing is the same between the two stories except for the heroine's name Astra and the faint Beauty and the Beast theme (the original story was a hardcore retelling this one though only faint traces of Beauty and the Beast can be found if you look closely enough).

I do not at this moment have any publishing plans for this book beyond the fact that this is the story I want to pitch at Realm Makers. It is going to be a standalone, my very first standalone and may very well be my longest story (although it will have some trouble beating SoS in all its 150k words).


Finally, a rough synopsis:

Safety is an illusion.

Astra Dempshire has always led a quiet life. As the middle daughter of a wealthy merchant, living in the walled confines of her circle of society protected from the Infected, her only cares so far have been to avoid her mother's matchmaking schemes and survive family feuds. This all changes when the handsome Edgar Wintersleave, son of the famed General Wintersleave, decapitates her dance partner.

Edgar Wintersleave is a mystery to the good folks of Eastern Yorkshire, even his own family. Even to himself. When his whole regiment disappeared months ago, he was presumed dead or worse. Only to appear wandering in the Infected lands wounded with no memory of the past few months or any idea of what became of the rest of his regiment.

You are never alone...

Astra however knows just what to think of Edgar and his claims that there are more deadly things out there than just the Infected. Perhaps he has won over all of society with his alluring dark manners and famed father, but she won’t forget what he did to George Pimberly. Even if he claims that he actually saved her life and that Pimberly was an Infected.

But as Infected attacks and other deadly encounters find their way inside the walls of Eastern Yorkshire, Astra is left questioning all she believes. Edgar may not be as mad as she originally thought. Perhaps there is an intelligence behind this pervasive evil. Perhaps the Infected aren’t the only things out there that threaten humanity.

Sometimes being right is a deadly business.



Anyway, now that you have a pretty good feel for this project onto the Shared WIP tag in which I will be talking about DFTS since it is my new NaNo project XD Primarily Astra Dempshire, my MC.


-Would you be friends with your MC? Why or why not?

I think so, yes. Astra is a fellow INTP and we both love reading more than we honestly should. We would have a nice time taking long walks across her grounds and playing a friendly turned intense game of chess together. We are also the middle sister in large families so yeah we would have a lot in common.

-What would an ordinary day look like in the shoes of your MC?

If Astra has her way it would involve mostly reading in the library. If she decides that she has spent too much time sitting down she will go on a walk or ride her horse through town. The day is considered a success if she avoids as much human interactions as possible, with of course the exception of her siblings. She will often good naturedly rib them and tease them.

-You’re walking down the sidewalk when the villain approaches you and tells you he needs your help. What do you do?

I would probably scream my bloody head off. And hope that someone, preferably Edgar, showed up to save me and chop off the villain's head. Because my villains in this book are zombies. I mean, I have other villains and some humans who do shady stuff, but I'm going to avoid going into that any further because of spoilers. So all villains in this section are going to be the Infected. My other villains aren't exactly the type to ask for help anyway; they don't generally ask anything they just take whatever they want. They are rude like that.

-What would be your first impression of your MC upon meeting them?

Um, probably that she is a woman of quality XD Honestly I would see her scowling at the world like it personally offended her and just be like, a woman after my own heart. Then I would probably get torn apart under her biting wit, but oh well. A small price to pay.

-What would be your first impression of your villain upon meeting them?

Yucky icky zombies.

-What would happen if you were stuck in an elevator with your villain for five (or worse, ten) minutes?

I'd die probably. Which is unfortunate. And by die I mean I would become an Infected as well. Which would be doubly unfortunate.

-What makes your MC most like you and least like you?

Astra and I share the same personality as I mentioned above, we are both from large families so we have quite a lot in common. One thing we do not have in common though is that Astra hates balls and parties and frankly I don't so...

-What song or selection of words best describes your villain?

"Won't see us coming, at the door even before you even blink. Something so cold blooded. With a deep killer instinct." - Wolves, Sam Tinnesz (featuring Silverberg)

-If your MC was teleported to your front porch, what would be their reaction (and what would be yours)?

Honestly I think Astra would be extremly surprised. Even though she comes from a world far into the future, it's similar to the Regency Era and she has only read about the technologies that we have. I think she would be quite inquisitive about the time before the Infected and also somewhat relieved to exist in a world where there are no Infected.

And I would just be like eyyyyy, it's you! Come on in, I've got some reading recs.

-If the antagonist had a dream come true, what would it be? (no spoilers!)

Hmm, no spoilers indeed...

So yeah still talking about the Infected. Essentially their whole goal in life is to share their parasites with the rest of the world (how very generous of them). So you know, giving someone a loving bite and sending their little babies that they produced asexually to swim up that person's bloodstream and kill that person's brain? Yeah that is their dream come true. Real family oriented villain, eh?


So anyway that is all for this week, what do you all think of my new project? As always, don't forget to check out everyone else's posts this week:

Lila: https://lilakimswriter.blogspot.com/
Julian: juliandaventrymemories.blogspot.com
at 3 comments:

Saturday, November 9, 2019

The Shared WIP Tag Week Two: Worldbuilding

My apologies, I realize that this is a day late, I was working on finishing SoS and well basically the real world faded into the background. But I'm back. SoS is done *takes a moment to scream shrilly* and now it is time to actually focus on MoC, and like, actually write it? XD

 So anyway I come to you again with the slightly late regularly scheduled shared WIP tag. This week the topic is world building and so I will be discussing my world of Amar. This is actually my second series taking place in this world, this series focuses more on the wild and madly beautiful aspects of this world.
Lila: https://lilakimswriter.blogspot.com/
Julian: juliandaventrymemories.blogspot.com

-What aspect of this world would make you want to leave immediately?

Amar can be very... unpredictable. Filled with dangerous creatures and volatile magics it's a good place to go to die. So definitely the whole element of danger would make me want to leave before I was maimed or killed. Not that such a thing ever happens to any of my characters... *chuckles nervously*

-If you lived in this world, what would be your job/working environment?

Hmm, this is an interesting question. I think that my job would actually to be a story teller, I would travel a lot across the lands and deal in tall tales and wonder rather than actual currency. Which means that I would probably not be exactly wealthy, but it would be an adventurous lifestyle.

-What would you most likely be wearing if you were dropped into this world?

An interesting question considering that essentially all of my characters are dropped into this world XD Seeing as this is a portal fantasy, in order to get to Amar I probably would have been pulled from Earth so I would be wearing whatever I was wearing before, probably my usual. Jeans. Plaid of some sort, and layers. And then I would get odd looks from everyone in Amar.

-What aspects stands out to you as different from our world? What is very similar to ours?

Amar is essentially a medieval world, but they are more developed than most of Europe was during the dark ages. Essentially I would say that the main differences between our worlds is that Amar is lacking the technologies and discoveries of our world and we are missing the magic and lore of Amar.

-Which part of your world would you most enjoy visiting?

"Everything about Amar is vibrant and beautiful and just more than Earth.
More alluring.
More beautiful.
More dangerous."

Amar is just as beautiful as it is dangerous and I think I would love to visit it just for the raw power and majesty of the land, to see the sights, gaze at the stars, visit the castles.



-Which part of your world would you avoid at all costs?

Definitely the part of the world where this book takes place. The enchanted forest bordering Einlore, possibly the most dangerous and volatile area in all of Amar filled with creatures no longer found in other portions of the land. More specifically I would very much like to avoid the faerie circus found at the heart of this forest because those guys aren't nice.



-Would you enjoy the types of food or common dishes eaten in your world?

Probably, maybe less on the porridges and stew, but the other main dishes are meats and fruits. Of course the amount of bread consumed by the people of Amar is just appalling to my low-carb diet.

-What does the culture of this world revolve around and would you enjoy participating in it?

Amar is very much a segregated land, the countries don't have very much to do with each other at all. So the lands all have different cultures and features. But I would say that one thing that they all have in common is they know how to celebrate.
Balls and feasts are a common way to spend the evening pleasantly. And yes I wouldn't mind participating in a ball or dance as long as I'm not being sent as a werewolf's sacrifice.

-What’s your favorite thing about the story world?

Definitely the magic and mythos. All of the creatures and magical abilities and how they are classified as well as the rich history that I put maybe just a tad too much thought on XD

-Provide a few pictures that help depict your story world.
(all pictures via Pinterest)
at 3 comments:
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