More Photo Love for My Storyboard

Everyone knows Pinterest is quite the addictive site, but it's become even more so now that I made a storyboard there! I am spending forever just going through pictures, and it's awesome how some have sparked an idea to develop on.

Source: Uploaded by user via Amber on Pinterest

Source: meganfromminneapolis.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: browndresswithwhitedots.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: arrowandarrow.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: iloveswmag.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: flickr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Source: lapetitefashionistablog.tumblr.com via Amber on Pinterest

Do you have any favorite photography boards on Pinterest? If you do, you should share them with me so I can get lost some more in ideas :)

Making a storyboard via Pinterest!

I've noticed a few writers that I follow via Pinterest making storyboards. One that really caught my eye was author Mindi Scott cause she had pinned my favorite actor, Garrett Hedlund. I thought: What a freaking cool idea! (Right after I sighed over Garrett, of course.)

I don't have tons and tons added to it, but I've been having fun searching for things and getting inspiration from things I've spotted. Since I'm working back on Gus, I do have a lot written (oh ya know about 6 unfinished starts of a manuscript) so I've found a couple things that reminded me of scenes that I have and placed little "teasers" with them.

Here's a couple examples of the teaser pins:

Source: flickr.com via Amber on Pinterest

If you drove thirteen miles past the town of Creedence, and blinked, you’d probably miss my hometown. Not because it was incredibly small, which it was, but because the sign that welcomed you had been blown away in a storm twenty years ago. No one in town had ever bothered to putting a new one back up. So the only thing you would see, if you didn’t blink, was the back of a busted up stop sign that leaned a little to the left. --Intro to Chapter 4

Source: ka-bloom.org via Amber on Pinterest

"What do you mean those are RaeAnne's ashes?" Conner asked.

I held up the ziploc bag to show him.

"You stole RaeAnne!" Lizzy yelled. "I can't believe you stole RaeAnne!"

"Well if it makes you feel better," I told her, "I didn't steal all of her."


I've always pinned up my characters. Like:

Source: google.com via Amber on Pinterest

Augustus "Gus" Brooks - Main Character

Source: ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com via Amber on Pinterest

Memphis Jack *sighs* - Ex-Boyfriend

Source: listal.com via Amber on Pinterest

Clementine Brooks - Older sister who is a riot to write

Source: americansongwriter.com via Amber on Pinterest

Alex Brooks - Father. The only one I'm having trouble with is finding the mother. So if you have any suggestions of a woman with brown hair that would look good with Jeff Bridges aka Alex Brooks, let me know :) Also any redheads in their 20's. I had an idea but the more I look the more I go blah.

If you want to see more of who I envision as my characters, random photos that remind me of my story, and some of my novel playlist, check out my storyboard here.

Casting Your Characters: More Videos Part Two

My writing has suffered big time due to this crazy schedule I have. I don't like it one bit because when I find moments to sit down and write I feel like I'm being timed so I plunge out as much as I can, not really knowing if it makes sense then jump onto the next thing on my to-do list.

While I'm doing homework tonight (5 assignments I forgot about), I was listening to my "Writing Gus Music" playlist I have saved on Youtube. When you've been working on and off again on the same story for almost four years, a lot of things get saved, some you have forgotten about. That's when I saw (rather heard voices and looked up at the computer) these two videos and realized how much I cannot wait to dive back into my book soon.

Obviously these videos have nothing to do with my story. They are stories within themselves, but seeing Bethany Joy and Taylor Kitsch in videos together just make me giddy. Even if it takes me 10 years to write this novel, what these two look is how I'll always envision Augustus "Gus" Brooks and Memphis Jack :)



 

Casting Your Characters

I'm know I'm not alone in the idea of putting a face with a character.

 It's kind of the first thing I do when I start out with a new story. I blame Cheryl for this and our days of Death Sentence fanfiction. She has some awesome photoshop skills and made me pretty icons and banners for a story once. Ever since then when characters start brewing, I cast them.

When I get bored and am supposed to be writing, I have a habit of going on Youtube and trying to find videos that have "my characters" together.

Sometimes it doesn't work, and sometimes, I find creations like this:

And ones like this....


Then I get all smiley and run back to my word document and start writing some more.

Basing your characters on real people.

I think it would be impossible for someone to write a story, and not somehow have a character that wasn't influenced, even if it's just a tiny bit, by someone in their lives.

At the moment I've been working on What If. (I know!!) When my main character Gus interacts with her mother, I sat back and thought: Holy crap. I think I just wrote my relationship with my mother. To clarify, my mother and Gus's mother are really nothing alike. My mother doesn't dance naked on the first Friday of every month nor does she ride a unicycle around town when it's dumpster diving day. And my mother isn't as nutty as Gus's. She's entirely way more sarcastic too which is kinda where I got my sarcasm from.

But the conversation between my characters? Yeah, I think it may be influenced by my own life. To give you an idea of how Gus and her mother nteract with one another, here's a recent (and best by my memory) conversation between my mother and I that took place yesterday when I found out I got my externship (!!) in town at the place I wanted (!!). *high-fives self*

Me: Mom! I got the externship in town!

Mom: Oh honey, that’s great. Where is at?

Me: The Behavioral Clinic.

Mom: The what?

Me: The Behavioral Clinic.

Mom: Huh?

Me: The Be-hav-i-oral Cl-in-ic

Mom: The what clinic?

Me: THE BEHAVIORAL CLINIC!

Mom: Well I couldn’t hear you.

Me: Obviously.

Mom: Don’t get hateful!

Me: Ohmygosh.

Mom: Where is at?

Me: Up by Family Pharmacy.

Mom: Our doctor’s office?

Me: No, the other building.

Mom: Ohhh okay. Now that’s not the place you didn’t want to go to, is it?

Me: No, because I have no idea what place I didn’t want to go to is at. This was the only place I had planned on really going to.

Mom: Well what about that place your friend ended up going to and hated?

Me: The physical therapy place?

Mom: Yeah. Is that where you’re going?

Me: No, mother. I’m going to the Behavioral Clinic.

Mom: The what?

Me: *bangs head against steering wheel* The Behavioral Clinic. It’s through OMC which is out of West Plains.

Mom: Oh, you’re going to have to drive all the way down there for your externship? I thought you said they’d place you here in town.

Me: MOTHER! NO!

Mom: Why do you keep getting hateful?

Me: For the love of - Mom, just know I am doing my externship in town, and I’m happy about it!

Mom: Well you sure don’t sound that happy.

*later that night when I stop by my parents’ house to show off my snazzy new intern name badge*

Mom: Does that place have good insurance?

Me: I don’t know.

Mom: You should have asked.

Me: It’s an externship. They don’t give out insurances on those things.

Mom: Well, the lady at the office told me they didn’t have good insurance.

Me: Since when did you go to that place?

Mom: When I went to our doctor.

Me: *stares at her blankly*

Mom: You said it was by Family Pharmacy. That’s our doctor’s office.

Me: No. That isn’t where I’m going. It’s a totally separate building. *deep breath* You know what? Nevermind.

Dad: Where are you going again?

Me: Mars. I am going to Mars.

And Mom, if by some weird chance you're reading this post, just know that I love you. I hope you never change your never-listening ways. No seriously. You are the best inspiration sometimes because of it.

When writing fails, music prevails.

Due to the crazy move, work, and school, I've been ignoring all of my stories like they did something horrible to me. I'm not for sure if I'm experiencing writer's block or more like the umph to get back into the groove of writing.

Even when I get into these little frets, one thing that never changes is listening to music. Over the past week and a half I have stumbled on songs that have put me into the motion of HEY! I NEED TO WRITE! Here are a few songs I'm adding to all three of my current WIP's soundtracks.

Fairy Tale
This song fits the mold of Mason Sherwood, and his gang of not so merry men to a tee. I can also see a very cool fight scene going with this song. Possibly with the dark S.O.B who still doesn't have a name?

The Unexpected Clash of Strangers
I was watching one of my new favorite movies, Life As We Know It, and noticed the awesome soundtrack. Right out at the beginning it clicked that this song could sum up the relationship between Derk and Vicki.


Maybe it's the overall vibe of the song that just makes you kind of bop your head, but this song just seems like something Gracie would be jamming to.


Just Call Me Gus
This is also from the Life As We Know It soundtrack. Death is a big issue in this story with not only Gus, but for her friends she left behind. It also gives me a major Memphis vibe. (Plus it's Pearl Jam and Eddie could read me the phone book and I'd swoon.)

Finding inspiration.

There's this place in my novel called the Cliff. It's where my main character and her friends spend a lot of time at. I based it on a mixture of places I used to hang out at when I was a teen. I was about the only one of my friends who hated swimming in a creek so I spent a lot of times just sitting on top of the cliffs or at the bottom banks. Once in a while I would get brave, wade through the water, pretend there was nothing swimming around my ankles, and climb on a rock.

Each time I place a scene at the Cliff, I keep thinking I should go back to one of those places so I can remember more details about it. One of the places is called Baptist Camp.

Baptist Camp is just right off the same highway I go down twice a week for school. Today I was near the area, and thought why not stop? It was so pretty outside. I was going to try to climb up one of the hills to see if I could get on a cliff, but I wasn't really dressed for it with flats and all. Plus it's deer season and going through the woods doesn't scream safe.

I really wish I had a laptop because I could have done some serious writing out there. Luckily I had my bag in my car so I grabbed my notebook, sat down at one of the tables, and jotted stuff down. I've known my character for years, but now that I'm writing her as a teen, I'm getting to see a whole new side of her. And being out there today, I heard her loud and clear.

What about you? Do you base places in your novel from places you know well? 

Ever went there to find inspiration?

I just broke 20k.

It's time to break out the happy dance for 20K!!

Have I mentioned I completely love my story? Switching it to the young adult genre was quite possibly the best idea I have ever had. I get my main character. I've been with this chick for two and a half years and I finally get her. All I had to do was kill her best friend.

If you hear me say I hate my novel, and I hate writing in the next 20 days, please remind me of this post.

Tip: Bribe yourself. The other day I told myself for every 10 pages I wrote, I could watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy. Tonight I told myself if I could write 3K in the next two hours I could eat dinner instead of a health shake. I wrote that 3K EXACTLY with 10 minutes to spare!

Other Tip: If you have a friend named Sab who is trying to help you with your weight loss, do not announce on Twitter that you're eating ice cream for dinner as your reward. Because when you do, that's about the time she'll be on Twitter and she will nail your butt for it! And she will do it rightfully so.

So what about you? How are you doing so far in NaNoWriMo?

Day 7 in NaNoWriMo

Seeing how pumped up I was it's a bit surprising that this is my first post talking about NaNoWriMo. I have many reasons.

1. My Monday went to hell super fast about an hour or so into work. It pretty much set the mood for the entire week and killed my writing high.

2. I've been sick. Did you know it's quite possible to take antibiotics for twenty days straight and your ear will still hurt?

3. Work. Sick. Work.

4. Season Six of Grey's Anatomy showed up at my house. Damn you, Netflix, I'm supposed to be writing here!

5. Sick. I hate my ears.

6. Work. School. Work.

Just so we're clear this is not a picture of me.

I finally went back to the doctor (makes a total of $462 that I've spent on my ears - they should be made of gold by now) and found out I no longer had a sinus infection or fluid in my ears but I HAD BUMPS! Think of poison ivy inflamed in your ear because that's what it feels like. She gave me cream, I plopped some on a q-tip, shove it my ears, and suddenly my muse popped out!

True story.

And now on Day 7 as I grumbled at my keyboard this morning then finished off Grey's (did anyone else cry just about every episode leading up to the finale? Does anyone else find McSteamy more attractive now that he's a dad and grandpa? Wait, is that gross to say?) something clicked.  My brain went crazy and I'm now up to a....

wait for it....

14,897 word count!!!!!

I know what you're thinking.  Why not just push yourself those 103 more words to reach 15K? Well, I tried, but I just killed off a character and I can no longer write for the night.  So I get to go watch another episode of Grey's from this season (if anyone can point me in the direction where I can find episodes 1 and 2 because they're not on ABC.com or hulu.com I would be forever grateful) as my reward then I'm going to bed.

So how about you? How you are doing with NaNo so far? Ready to pull out your hair? Ready to throw a character off a cliff? Or are you doing pretty freaking awesome and pounding away?

Wannabe Writers #39

Wannabe Writers is an Internet writing group. Everyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Click here to find more about how it works.

Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished and have been writing since I was 10. Earlier this month I made the bold step (bold to me at least) to dump my adult WIP and turn it into a YA novel for NaNoWriMo.

My current problem(s): Strangely enough, I'm not really having any. Besides maybe not brainstorming enough to gear up for November 1st, I'm having a lot of fun just discovering more and more about my characters. I think turning this into a YA was quite possibly the best decision to make. One of my book blogging friends, Kim from And Anything Bookish made me this awesome banner to use:



My question this week: In middle school, I used to write all my stories in these big wide rule notebooks. I would carry them with me everywhere. Take them to a friend's house and always pass them around to see what they all thought of my new chapters. In some stories, I would make them look a bit more snazzy by adding cut out pictures from magazines. Like this one:

(Please don't judge me by that super cheese-tastic title. I was like thirteen when I put this together!)




(Poe was my favorite. Yes, she was named after the singer. Gotta love the 90's.)

(Those were the 'mean girls' in the story. And see, they've always came in a pair of three!)

My first ever full notebook story was called Joni's Unperfect/Perfect Life. It was about a teenage girl who lived with her mom and her older brother named Sean. He was in a grunge band trying to be the next Kurt Cobain. Joni had a kick butt set of friends, one was girl named Sammy who was influenced by one of my friends. (I even wrote a spin off called: Sammy's In Love. She played soccer and met her crush at a game. I don't think it had an ending though.) Anyways, Joni had this major thing for the new boy and a bunch of drama happened between her and the popular girl at school. I think Joni broke her nose in a fight and blah, blah, blah.

I only remember bits and pieces because I have long since lost that notebook. It makes me sad because I would love to read it again. Flipping through all my other stories, it's like the ultimate set of cheese. I'm perfectly fine with that because when I went through all these notebooks again, I remembered how much making these stories up even back then meant to me. Even though I've taken my writing way more seriously and want to pull my hair out, at the end of the day, I still love it.

So my question this week is:

What was the first story or book you wrote? How old were you and what was it about?

Wannabe Writers #37

Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished. Never fully finished a story unless you count one I wrote in middle school and a fanfiction.

My current problem(s): Getting some balls. Yep. Balls. And I might even need some Jumbo Coconut Balls (points for you if you can guess what movie that saying came out of) if I'm really going to turn my old WIP into a YA novel. I have a lot of things outlined. A lot of ideas, and some missing plot holes that seem to make more sense when the story is now being told through a seventeen year old rather than a twenty-four year old. But I dunno. I'm afraid that I might just crap this story all over the place and end up hating it. Yes, I know I am over analyzing the hell out of this. Welcome to my neurotic writing life.

My question this week: How do you outline? I usually give myself big points like what I want to happen at the beginning, middle, or end. I know it will change at some point, but I'm curious how other people do it.

NaNoWriMo - Are you signing up this year?

I'm sure everyone and their mother knows by now that the NaNoWriMo boards have opened up. I plan on joining up this year, and tackling my first ever Young Adult novel. I haven't written YA since I was probably 19. Kind of funny seeing that's about all I read, but when I write, I write about people in their twenties. I'm excited to see what's going to happen. Details of my story coming up later when I can actually sum it up without writing a million paragraphs that go "Well then this will happen...."

If you're doing NaNoWriMo this year feel free to add me. I'd love to have many writing partners especially for encouragement! Just click here to buddy me on the site.

Wannabe Writers #36

Wannabee Writers is an Internet writing group I created. Everyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Click here to find out more about how it works.

Where I am in the writing process: Oh lord. Don't even ask me this week.

My current problem(s): Deciding on what to freaking write. I haven't written in almost three weeks since I made the decision to finally pull the plug on That Damn Novel. I had been working on That Damn Novel for two and a half years. Had four different beginning drafts, over 100 pages of notes, but yet somehow could never really meet a middle and an end. I kept thinking WHY CAN'T I TELL THIS STORY?! Finally. I went over it, really looked into, and realized all I had was this back story. This whole story of who my character used to be when she was a teenager. How her family used to be before she ran away. All of her friends and relationships and how they were when she was a teenager. So I decided no more, and maybe just maybe one day I would just write the backstory because that's obviously where the story was at.

So after dumping That Damn Novel off in the desert, I decided to take a spin at my old WIP, The Unexpected Clash of Strangers. That story is fun. Gracie is the type of girl who should have to wear a helmet every time she ventures out into the street. I worked on it for two days before I decided to just take a break from it all. Last week, ideas starts brewing and I decided ya know what - I am going to tackle that YA novel and I'm going to do it for NaNoWriMo. So in the between time when I'm not mapping out ideas for what shall be called That Damn YA Novel (no, not really it has a title: Just Call Me Gus but I just like saying damn. It fits my mood this week) I'm also going to work here and there on The Unexpected Clash of Strangers just to see where it'll take me before I dump it off in the desert too.

My question this week: What have you done when a story just wasn't working right? Did you change the plot? Change your characters? Knock off a character? Give up? Or decide that maybe switching genres would be the best bet?

Wannabe Writers #34

Wannabe Writers is an internet writing group. Everyone is welcome to join. It's a place to meet other writers, ask questions, and get feedback. Click here to find out more about how it works.

Where I am in the writing process: Unpublished. Currently working on a novel I've been on and off again with for two and a half years. It will see the light at the end of the tunnel one day. I'm sure of it!

My current problem(s): Self-doubt. I having one of those self loathing I'M THE WORST WRITER IN THE WORLD weeks. I know my story. I know what I want to happen, and sure I've started it over 4 different times, but half way through it I realize what doesn't work. It's not a complex story, but when it's right - it's right and when it doesn't work - it stops you dead in your tracks. This whole week I've tried writing out scenes and they always end with..."what the crap is this? gah!"

Then on the other hand, I've been running on tired for the past 3 weeks trying to get used to this whole new life of balancing school, work, family, friends, writing, book blog, and trying to loose weight (shootmenow!) is just making my head jello.

........If it's not, can we just say it is? Please?

Question of the week: What are you thoughts on e-publishing? Everyone wants to get published through a major publishing house and see that final hard-copy in their hands and top the best-seller charts. But what if that's just not in the stars for you---would you ever go the e-publishing route? I mean e-readers are starting to pick up popularity...

Okay...this is soley my opinion so please do not take offense if you have done e-publishing or self-publishing. As of right now where I stand as a writer (and a dreamer), I feel if I took that route, I would be cheating my dream and the 10 year old girl who told herself she would one day have a book of hers in a store.

I'm not saying those that do it are - not at all. But I've also never shopped a book yet. I've never fully went back, revised, edited, critiqued a full length novel before, wrote a query letter, scouted agents, cried over rejects - you get my point here. So who knows down the road, I could give it a shot. I know the world of reading is turning into e-book and I don't like it. I'm one of those people who aren't a big fan of all this wonderful! new! shiny! everything in the world will soon be all electronic! things...but that's a whole other post for a day I doubt will ever happen.

So today was the day I was supposed to have my novel done.

About three and a half months ago (or maybe it was four? I dunno - my memory sucks) I gave myself a deadline. I thought this deadline would lit a fire under my writing butt so much that I would stay up all night clicking away at the keyboard trying to give my character her ending that she's been dying to have for the past two and a half years. That's right people - two and a half years I've been messing around with this story. Changing the character's past, changing the plot lines, changing just about every single thing you can think of.

I'm not one to brag, but I'm a pro at writing beginnings. Beginnings are my things. I can write a damn good beginning but get me to the middle and the end - holy moly I've never really fully reached that unless you count fanfiction which you probably don't. This book though. Oh my. This book has had a total of 12 beginnings. 12! That might not seem like a lot to some, but this is unheard of from me. It's also had about four complete 100 page starts. That's 400 pages I've written in the past two and a half years that never even really reached the good middle. INSANITY!

I failed. I didn't meet my deadline today. After starting over completely three and half (or maybe four? who the heck knows by now) I wrote 100 new pages of stuff. And you know what I did two weeks ago? I started all over again. After changing this plot to that plot and trying to make my main character's damn boyfriend fit into everything (seriously this guy was a fiance then went to a boyfriend back to a fiance then I just made him break her heart at the beginning cause I had to have a reason why she's so damn angry), coming up with a few reasons of what happened the night that made my character leave town in the first place it ALL CAME TO ME! You know what those ideas were? The whole idea I had when I first started this story two and a half years ago.

So what does all this rambling mean? It means that sometimes when your story is frustrating you and driving you bonkers don't give up on that grand awesome epic idea you had that made you want to write it. Sure you should venture out into other ideas. Sometimes when you think a plot isn't working you just need to look through it all. Don't just drop it like a hot potato. Charge through it. Don't be like me and have about 4 huge main files, 8 random beginnings, and 2 files filled with notes that equal about oh 100 pages (holy crap that makes 500! pages!). Don't stray away from your story just because SHINY! NEW! FUN! ideas come along. Just write the damn thing already!

But in case you're wondering according to my little word counter I am 57% with my novel and on the right track at least I think for today.

I have no clue if this post made sense. I was supposed to be in bed over an hour ago.

I'm leaving on a jet plane....

On Wednesday morning I will be heading to the airport ready for the vacation I've been desperately needing for the past two years. The one thing I will not be thinking about as I hit up Sea World, Daytona, and where ever else my friend and I find ourselves is my novel.

Oh and work of course. Yeah, definitely will not be missing that place. (And if my boss is reading this I still heart you.)

When I get back from this epic vacation, my head will be cleared and the big portion of my novel (I only have 24K - I had way more, but then I decided to go back to my original storyline and everything changed) will be ready and willing for me to tackle it so I can meet that dumb fake deadline I gave myself - August 28th.

BUT before I head out Wednesday morning, I do want to try and squeeze in 10K. I don't know if this will be possible, but I'm going to give it a spin. Let's face it. Even though I say I won't be thinking about my novel, I still packed a notebook in my suitcase just in case an idea or two or twenty pop into my head.

I also added a few songs to my ever growing playlist:



When I heard the lyrics:

You always did kind of drive me crazy and pissed me off ‘cause I let it faze me
But I never wanted my time with you to end

I knew this was a Memphis song.



This complicated song of letting go but not wanting to let go is so.Augustus (better known as Gus in her hometown and YES she's a girl with a dude's name)



It's come to my attention any Gaslight Anthem song lately reminds me of Kaden. This one for some reason just keeps catching my ear.



Driving down the road, this song came on, and an idea for Conner just popped in my head.

That's all folks! Have a great week and hopefully my next post will be me bragging at my huge bump in word count.

Expert from my novel - Babel Fish style

I just saw this on Mindi Scott's (2010 debut author - I am so excited about her book) blog. You can read her entry here.

Basically the idea is to take an expert from your book, go to Babel Fish, translate it to another language then translate it back to English, and see what happens!

I took the last part I wrote last night / this morning and threw it on Babel Fish, hit English to French then French to English. This is what I got:


“Sorry kid,” He said, spreading his legacy out. “I' ve made my decision one this. When the garlic smelling mannequin walks in thesis doors, the only show she is going to get is my underwear being ripped off.”

My jaw dropped. He wouldn' T.

Wait.

Off race He would.

“Fine,” I said, shoving myself off the desk. I walked next to him, took has deep breath, and thanked the Lord we didn' T cuts cameras in young stag. I kicked off my heels, undid my short prop, and slipped my slacks right off.

“A-Augustus…” Thomas stuttered. “Is that has….?”

“Yes,” I replied, feeling my entire body blush. “That would Be has thong.”

Here's what it actually says:

“Sorry kid,” he said, spreading his legs out. “I’ve made my decision on this. When the garlic smelling mannequin walks in these doors, the only show she is going to get is my underwear being ripped off.”

My jaw dropped. He wouldn’t.

Wait.

Of course he would.

“Fine,” I said, shoving myself off the desk. I walked next to him, took a deep breath, and thanked the Lord we didn’t have cameras in here. I kicked off my heels, undid my button, and slipped my slacks right off.

“A-Augustus…” Thomas stuttered. “Is that a….?”

“Yes,” I replied, feeling my entire body blush. “That would be a thong.”

Let's bring this blog back to life, shall we?

Once upon a time I decided this was going to be the blog I talked about all my writing then well, it didn't happen.

*hangs head in shame*

So here's what's going on. I'm starting over from scratch and making sure this sucker gets used for what it was meant to be used for: WRITING!

I've been working on a novel that I will be calling UNTITLED. (I have a name for it, but more in likely it will change. It's only had 5 different names by now.) I've worked on this story for almost 2 years. I know my characters like the back of my hand, and finally, FINALLY I think I've got. Really got the drive to finish this novel for once and for all. I started over from scratch which was crazy, yet crazy good idea. I even gave myself a fake deadline - August 10th. (My co-worker even circled it on the calender at work.) So what's the story that I've been trying to get out about? Well, I'll give you a half arse snyposis:

Augustus Brooks hasn't been home in over seven years. It would have been longer, but her grandmother decided to drop dead on her, and her mother guilt tripped her into coming back home for the funeral. (Plus there was the fear of her grandmother haunting her if she didn't attend the service.) Little did Augustus know that this was just one piece of the crazy scheme puzzle her parents had created for her. Now she's stuck in Yellow Falls. For how long? She has no idea, but one thing she does know is that having to face everyone she left behind, the one major regret, and an ex boyfriend she never really broke up with was never in her plans.

So that's it so far. I'll be frequently updating this blog with my journey of writing, rambles, and whatever seems to tickle my fancy.