Thing 1 & Thing 2

"A quiet mind cureth all." - Robert Burton

Novel 1: 80,015 words 

Novel 2: 80,035 words

Now that second number is definitely going to change (in the upward direction) during revisions, but...dang. 20-word difference.


Although this is interesting:

Novel 1: 430,506 chars 

Novel 2: 445,399 chars

Apparently I used bigger words.


And according to Random Online Writing Analyzer I used yesterday...


Novel 1, which is the thing of which I am most proud and the piece of my writing I love best: Reads like Cory Doctorow (YES!)
Novel 2: Despite being epic fantasy, apparently reads like a James Bond novel


I have never read a James Bond novel, so I do not know what this means. Although their algorithm probably thinks very little happens in it other than conversations about the weather, given that most of the main characters are conscious embodiments of seven aspects of a hurricane.

What Happens When I'm Internet-Deprived

'If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." - Hermann Hesse (There are certainly exceptions to this, but I don't think there are many.)


Every morning this week, I have been turning off the internet and writing (that is to say, editing). I'm so much more productive that way. If the internet's on, I'm going to be procrastinating. The funny thing is though,  I don't go looking for other distractions if its turned off. I just write.


I haven't really done much with this manuscript in about a year (oh god, it really has been that long) due to other projects and the totally misconceived notion that it was good enough to not mess with anymore, and I hadn't really done much serious writing since the end of January for other reasons.


Now that I'm getting back into both noveling in general and this project specifically...my god, I love it. I've been having such an amazing time. I've been laughing at forgotten humor, giggling with maniacal glee at the villain, banging my head against the table when I come across something particularly awful before hitting backspace as fast as I can, and generally enjoying myself tremendously. I've cut almost 3,000 words' worth of verbose irrelevancy...


While I've definitely been improving some things, though, I've also been noticing weaknesses I hadn't seen before (and emailing two of my beta readers about them). It's coming together, and I'm blissfully (or perhaps painfully) aware of the stuff that needs work.
And having recovered from my recent rejection, I have a list of agents to whom I intend to send query packets within the month.


Last night my mom told me she was proud that I haven't given up hope yet. I told her it had very little to do with perseverance and a lot to do with stubbornness. I want this, and I'm not going to stop until I get it. 


My writing and my self-esteem are tied more closely than I want them to be- in more ways than one. However, the relationship between the two is reciprocal, which means they feed off each other. So I'm happy, and I'm happy that I'm happy, because that means I'm getting out of the literary rut I've been sitting around in (at least, that's what I'm telling myself).

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

"In Beatrice Prior’s dystopian Chicago world, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can’t have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.

During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris, and struggles alongside her fellow initiates to live out the choice they have made. Together, they must undergo extreme physical tests of endurance and intense psychological simulations, some with devastating consequences. As initiation transforms them all, Tris must determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes-fascinating, sometimes-exasperating boy fits into the life she’s chosen.

But Tris also has a secret: one she’s kept hidden from everyone, because she’s been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers unrest and growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly-perfect society, she also learns that her secret might be what helps her save those she loves . . . or it might be what destroys her." - Shelfari's Summary

I agree that the summary makes Divergent sound like just another Hunger Games knock-off. A bunch of teenagers thrust into a highly-competitive situation, with the bottom scorers being eliminated? And ooh, romance. That's what I thought when I started reading it, too. But no. Not at all.

I realize that over the course of the year, I've said "Oh, I loved this book so much!" for every dystopian novel I've reviewed, other than Delirium. Divergent was way better than Matched, Delirium, and XVI. I'm choosing not to compare it to Wither (which I apparently didn't write a review for-- I loved it to pieces), since they're both amazing in different ways.

I have another post in the works about the world in greater detail, so I'll just say that it wasn't just an "Ooh, creative idea!" sort of dystopian world. This was a "Ooh, creative and engrossing and fascinating idea!" sort.

The love interest, despite sharing some physical traits with Mr. Paranormal Romance (blue eyes, dark hair, long-fingered hands-- and I got to the part about the hands a few days after I wrote the post), is not annoying. He's not Mr. Perfect, and he's not Mr. My Flaws Make Me Perfect. He really is, well, flawed. And it's that, ironically enough, that made him my favorite fictional love interest in a long while. If it weren't for the fact that I don't want to spoil his identity for you (who am I kidding- it's obvious from his first scene), I would refuse to call him The Love Interest, because while that's his role in the plot, he seems way more real and...complete... than just that.


To quote from another review of the book, "Tris never had some sudden, life-changing experience and then suddenly became sure that she was in the right place making the right choices. She had terrible doubts through to the end, and her success throughout the book was to keep ploughing on through her uncertainty." That's true, and I love it.


Reading Divergent, while completely enjoyable in and of itself, also made me realize some of the flaws in my own novel, and has inspired me to get started on another set of edits. (It may help that there are two short scenes in Divergent that are pretty much identical to two short scenes in mine, and Divergent did it better.) That, I think, is one of the marks of a great book, though: it makes you want to do great things yourself.

Bad News

http://effyeahnerdfighters.com/post/5012660612/submitted-by-statictransmissons

"Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts." - Marquis de Vavenargues


"The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race." - Don Marquis


"There's a difference between a philosophy and a bumper sticker." - Charles M. Shulz


Something else I liked a lot that you should read


Remember back in January when that agent asked me for my entire manuscript? Finally got a response yesterday afternoon-- after sending her a follow-up email. Rejection. (I post this and the following not out of a plea for sympathy but rather to keep you informed and hopefully amused.)


So I'm sitting there on the couch feeling mopey and depressed and my dad says to me "Don't be thinking about turning to drugs or alcohol. Are you thinking about drugs and alcohol? How long have you been thinking about drugs and alcohol?"
And I laughed and said "About ten seconds."


Then this morning he was trying to get me to drink some of his (decaf) coffee. "Do you want a sip of this room-temperature, horrible coffee?"
"Um, no?"
"I'm trying to get you to do drugs!"
"You just don't want to drink it yourself! You've been complaining about how bad it is all morning."
"I just want you to feel better. Oh, here we go--" He pointed at me and proclaimed "Feel-Better-igus!"
"You know, I don't know if Harry Potter jokes are going to do the trick right now."


At which point he shrugged and made a Doctor Who joke instead. The man knows me well. :)


So I think I'm going to do another editing swipe before starting querying again. At least I'll edit the end. The end needs work.


Today my Chemistry class came of age (the class itself. Not the people.) Something exploded, something melted, and acid went everywhere. Oh, and the bottom of a beaker literally fell off. (No one was hurt. It was mostly just funny.)

In Which I Am Paranoid Despite The Box Post

"What some people mistake for the high cost of living is really the cost of high living." - Doug Larson


"I am not one of those who in expressing opinions confine themselves to facts." - Mark Twain


Today's post is one of the ones that matches my original intentions for this blog. These are few with far between, so savor it. Or not, since you probably started following for the content that I actually do post, but no matter.


Remember two months ago when I had a request for the full manuscript of The Clockwork Experiment? It's been two months, so I wrote the agent an email last night. I received an automated response email saying that she was sorry, but she'd be out of the office until March 8th.


March 8th was a long time ago, people.


If I don't hear back by next Monday night, I think I'll write to the head/founder of the agency to see what's going on. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid and over-reactive (and you know from the Box post that I'm generally rather paranoid when it comes to people I don't know at all).


But I went on Absolute Write to see what people were saying about the group, and all of it seemed pretty positive. There was even a couple posts from this year (although those were just "I sent her a query today" and from even earlier in January than me, "I sent her a full and will update the thread when I hear back."


Dissect and analyze with your more-rational-than-mine brains.

Re-Segregation in Schools

"Wherever you are - be all there." - Jim Elliot


"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." - Francis Bacon, 1625 


Children, I want you all to put on your clean dresses and freshly-pressed suits, because we're going to have a very important visitor arriving here on this blog rather soon. I will be going away for a little bit so that I won't be cluttering up the house while she is here. I want you all to be on your very best behavior. If you do as I ask, I will bake you a special treat.


Who is this visitor, you ask? She is an agent who has expressed interest in The Clockwork Experiment. I may or may not actually stop posting (most likely not-- I could never leave you dear ones for very long, could I? I mean, take a look at the archives on the right). However, the special treat is not a lie, unlike the cake. (Portal reference, anyone?) At least, it's solid truth for those of you in my writing group-- assuming I remember to bake it, that is.


Now, I could write a post in all capital letters about how exciting that is (and believe me, it's easily exciting enough to write one in THE LARGEST FONT SIZE), but I have more interesting things to be discussing, so let us move on to those.


Wow, this is coming out really formal other than the parenthesized parts, isn't it? I'll have to make up for it some other time.


As some of you may or may not know, my county's school system was mocked on the Colbert Report last night.  
I was not offended.
On the contrary, I was thoroughly amused, in a "Oh God, that's so true. Our school board sucks" kind of way.
As a friend of mine posted on Facebook, "When your county is the on the Colbert Report, you feel a mixture of pride and deep, deep shame."


It's heart-breaking to know that the school board is essentially re-segregating our schools with full knowledge of their actions. Worse yet is to see the parents, teachers, students, and even non-parent people who care pleading with them to keep the current policies at the open hearings. 
They claim that they're doing it to make it easier on parents-- so they don't have to drive their kids as far in the mornings-- and so that certain students won't have to sit on the bus for close to an hour twice a day.
However, many students with long transportation times clearly stated that they didn't mind. They understood the importance of socio-economic (and for the most part, therefore racial) diversity, and they were willing to give up a few hours of sleep each week in favor of that.


Let's see... "democracy." Literal definition: ruled by the people.
We elect those we wish to make the decisions for us, because we believe them to represent our values. They're supposed to do what we want, even if it's only so we'll elect them for another term.
I don't see the school board representing our values. I'm sure there are those who agree with them, but where are they? Not at that hearing. If they aren't making themselves heard, why should the school board do what they might want?


Hey...wasn't there that thing back when hippies were around called the Civil Rights Something-or-other? What was that thing about, again? I don't seem to recall.

An Abundance of Quotes Part 6

I'm in school at the moment, so no quotes from the new book. :(
That's good, though, because it gives me the chance to clean out my feeds in preparation for delving into some of those.

#1 is just a pretty image:

“The way the sun is right now, with the long shadows and that kind of bright, soft light you get when the sun isn’t quite setting? That’s the light that makes everything better, everything prettier, and today, everything just seemed to be in that light.” - John Green

#2 is some satire for you:

"Another possible source of guidance for teenagers is television, but television's message has always been that the need for truth, wisdom and world peace pales by comparison with the need for a toothpaste that offers whiter teeth *and* fresher breath." - Dave Barry

 

#3 gave me my first laugh of the day (when I read it before 7 am):

 

"Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so am I." - Oscar Levant

And #4 is motivational/inspirational:

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." - Tom Stoppard

Exams: 1 down, 3 to go

I won't have another English class until August. :(

I intend to put together a new set of query packets this weekend, and go to the post office after the library on Monday. (Because if I'm going to be driving home, I get to choose where we stop on the way there- mwa haha)
I feel like I haven't touched The Clockwork Experiment in ages. I feel like it's time for a re-read/edit, especially since a few more people have/are currently making their way through it. 
Is it weird that I miss the book I wrote?

Highlights Of 2010

This year, instead of posting an incredibly crappy poem for New Year's, I'm going with a Top 15 (since I am myself 15) list, written in no particular order. I'm sure I left some important stuff out, though, so my bad for that.


1. I finished my first novel, The Clockwork Experiment. Querying began, and has been so far unsuccessful. However, Daphne Unfeasible (aka Kate Testerman) of KT Literary reviewed my query letter, and had good things to say about it.


2. I spent a lot more time with my old friends this year, became closer to the newer ones, and generally had a more-fulfilling social experience in general. Every other Wednesday became the highpoint of my fortnight, both because of evening writing club and because I got to spend the entire afternoon and evening with my best friend, who for the first time since we met in 3rd grade, I was not seeing every day.


3. I read a lot of fantastic books, some of my favorites of the non-rereads being Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, Leviathan, Behemoth, and The Last Days by Scott Westerfeld, The Plot Chickens, and books 7, 8, and 9 of the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan.


4. I met two authors of some of my favorite books: Orson Scott Card and the aforementioned John Flanagan.


5. I got contacts and a new haircut, both of which I love, despite the fact that I'm not currently wearing the contacts. (I am allowed one purely vain thing on here, right?)


6. I was interviewed on the Office of Letters and Light's blog.


8. I was asked to include some work of mine in a publication, and will be receiving payment for it, providing I get it finished on time and everything works out according to plan.


9. My self-published anthology, Thoughts on Life became available on Amazon.


10. I took Driver's Ed (which sucked majorly), almost died several times (okay, I exaggerate) during the driving portion, but now have my permit and successfully drove somewhere today (I'm writing this on the 30th) without causing any harm other than pissing off the people behind me.


11. I've received over 4000 views on this blog since the Stat feature kicked off, and nearly a quarter of that in this month alone.


12. I was fortunate enough to attend about 5 wizard rock shows this year, which was incredibly awesome. These ranged from 7-band extravaganzas (ROFLCOPTOUR) to intimate Lord of the Rings-watching event with wrock sing-a-long-afterwards house parties. I spent a lot of money on music this year, and don't regret it. I met two of the Five Awesome Girls (Kristina and Lauren) which was, well, awesome.


13. The Quad N and "The Phantom of November" music video went pretty well. I got less views than I expected, but more views than would have been garnered if I hadn't done it. It was an enjoyable experience, and I grew as a filmographer (I don't think that's a word...). Also, I started a book reviewing YouTube channel, which while it only has 3 subscribers last time I checked, I plan to expand and make considerably better within the new year. Also, my Project For Awesome video got good reception from those who watched it.


14. I've done a lot of thinking about a wide variety of topics this year, so I now have a better idea of who I am and what I think and generally know more about myself, which boosts my self-confidence. So that's good. Yay for growing up and all of that.


15. I joined my school's Debate Team (as well as the Club, which are different), and had a fabulous and intellectually and creatively-stimulating time of it, even if my tournament scores didn't reflect my feelings on the event.


Seems pretty dang good for a girl of 15. Here's to hoping next year is even better.


If you want links to any of the other stuff, leave it in a comment and I'll put one in. Thanks for listening to me ramble, rant, and speculate here on Elf Army Writes, and I hope you'll continue to put up with me in 2011. :)
DFTBA.

My Query

I'm pretty sure I've posted my query letter on here for suggestions before, but Daphne Unfeasible of http://ktliterary.com recently critiqued it, so this time I'm including her comments as well. Tell me what you think!

Dear Ms. Unfeasible,
Nearly every civilization has a coming of age rite. In the 51st century, 15 year-olds travel to the dark side of their tidal-locked planet to live without adult influence for a month.
When Terry Massey first arrives, she’s expecting to have a blast, make the friends she’s never had, and start a new life. Her first few hours are great, but then things start to take a turn for the worse. A gang of thugs is terrorizing a select few citizens for seemingly no reason at all, her new friend is furious with her, and she’s surrounded by robots who might be trying to take over the world. The only person she identifies with keeps melting away into the shadows, and by trying to find him, she only succeeds in further isolating herself from the rest of her peers within the paradise of an enormous library.
She discovers a hinting of a secret of epic proportions within that library, as well as Colin, the devilishly charming and clever boy who led her to the library in the first place. As events escalate with the unbelievably irrational behavior of the rest of their age-group— especially the thugs— Terry and Colin join forces with several tea-addicts who sound like computers and an infuriating old man with secrets of his own. Together they must discover the truth behind both the actions of their fellow citizens and the enormous conspiracy that’s been lurking in the Palace’s tower for hundreds of years. And with the thugs after them, they’d better do it fast.
THE CLOCKWORK EXPERIMENT is complete at about 83,000 words. I live in [town], North Carolina, and this is my first novel.
Thanks for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
O.W.

Good opening paragraph, although I think, moving on, you can be a little more specific about where Terry arrives.
Things go pretty quickly bad, I see, within a “few hours.” And the mention of the library immediately brings to mind that fabulous Doctor Who two-parter, “The Silence in the Library.” That’s a lot to live up to, there. Your language moving into paragraph three is a little rough. Can you find a better way to say “a hinting of a secret of epic proportions”? The way it’s worded now, I’m thinking that Terry may also only discover a “hinting” of Colin — although I’m curious to know if he’s the person in the previous paragraph who “keeps melting away in to the shadows.”
As you add in more details, I get a little lost, but overall, it’s something I’d definitely look at the first few pages of.
Readers, what do you think? What advice do you have for O.W.?



This is good. I agree with everything she said, actually. I just haven't been sure what to do about it.


It brings up a question, though: Ms. Unfeasible, I sent you the first few pages. What was wrong with them?


This worries me, considering certain people speak very highly of the first few pages.


Also: HA! A DOCTOR WHO REFERENCE! That, combined with the (regrettably short) nap I had earlier, combined with that I got out of school an hour early, made my day, even though it's in a semi-negative context.

The Golden Rule

Written on 9/10/10


"The symbol of the dragon should always be before them, that mankind seek to accomplish, not to think of sin and penance!" - The Mists of Avalon


I just clicked on a link that Stats said someone had used to find me...and it took me to a Russian porn website. SCARY. I'm assuming that was from a bot or something.


"Freewrite for 8 minutes."


The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A great sentiment, an impossible ideal, and an inconsistent motto.
It doesn't always work. Yes, the ultimate rule of moral goodness fails sometimes. It's the reason lots of people in my class, as they are now, should never be in charge of education. We've all heard it. The teacher says "If you could change anything about school, what would it be?" and they say "No homework! School only 4 days a week! Half days every day!"
If they were to follow the GR in that case, no one would learn anything and if all of those things came true, there aren't enough days in a year to make up for the lost time, even if we didn't have summer vacation.
It also becomes an issue when interacting with my more..."well-brought-up" family members. There are some things I'm totally fine with and don't find rude at all, but if/when I do them, they would be extremely offended. This has gotten me into heaps of trouble. I do exactly what I would have them do unto me...and then I'm the disappointment. Mhm.
This being the case, I think the Golden Rule needs some modification. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" is too situation-specific when followed in the traditional sense. What we need is more of a "respect others as you would have them respect you." Then you respect what they find offensive, and they (hopefully) respect your wishes as well. If only that were so easy to do.


I also found a website via some other blog I follow where the goal is to compile sets of clothing...and I made one for The Clockwork Experiment's main character. Yes, I was bored. Here we are:

To Be Their Doctor

I can pretty much guarantee that you won't be hearing from me on this blog tomorrow, even though we have a meeting.
Why?
School starts, for one thing, and then I'll be finishing Catching Fire as soon as possible and starting in on Mockingjay. No spoilers at the meeting, please.


But here's a quote for you to enjoy, taken from the website Nerdfighter Secrets.


"A lot of secrets involve people wishing The Doctor would come and take them away. But I want to be someone's Doctor. To be the one to change their life, to always be there for them when they have nothing, to know that I saved one person...and they saved me."


This site, by nature, is anonymous, so I don't know who to credit for that one.


I like this quote a lot. It shows a lot of "I am someone who can do stuff-- not someone who needs stuff done to them."
As Ezra said of the main character when I read the first few chapters of Clockwork at writing club, "It seems like she doesn't do things. Things happen to her."


I was struck by this observation at the time. Struck by how true it was. And from that point on I started to try to slowly change my language throughout the book to show her develop into more of a do-er. I hope it worked.


Also, my dad asked me yesterday if he could read Clockwork. Although he isn't part of the target audience, he is a very good writer (although he's barely written anything besides emails and computer/programming-related articles since college, as far as I know) and will appreciate it for what it is. I expect to get excellent feedback from him, as I do on all of the stories, essays, and song lyrics I show him. However, he doesn't get that email until we've finished reading The Hunger Games together, which won't be for awhile because Emily's borrowing my copy at the moment.

In Which My Paranoia Sets In

This is all new to me, right? Sure, I've taken a class where we talked about it some, and read loads of personal accounts and blogs and whatnot...but I've never done this whole getting-published thing before.

I know Clockwork is good. I worked hard on it, and I've had loads of help from you guys. That's not what worries me. I know it's just a matter of time manuscript-wise.

But what about my query letter?

The query I wrote for Ishaera for my exam only got points taken off for phrasing and tense (I wrote it as if I was still working on the book as opposed to having finished. The directions confused me so I thought that was the way he wanted it.)

But that's just one. It's an entirely different thing. Prose I can do decently. Poetry is subjective. But a query letter? I've only written three of those in my entire life. Okay, maybe four. But still. 

And I know two rejection letters is nothing. Really. I know this. But that doesn't keep me from worrying. So I'll be reading my query letter to you next week, and you can have at it.

Yes, so I sent four or five more queries out this morning, and I got one reply so far (I'm actually impressed by how fast he was in getting back to me.)

One of them asked for people to send the first few pages along with their queries, and the first chapter of Clockwork is definitely the best (in my opinion, anyways.) Another said to attach the first 50 pages. Strangely enough, I'm more nervous about that one. The first 50 pages are very Queste-centric and set-uppy. And we all know that Queste is annoying. It's very girly YA and not much sci-fi. However, it does have the tea people in it, so I think that's good. It's pretty much immediately after that point that things start getting interesting (she finds the library, talks to Ronald for the first time, etc.)

Driving-wise, they took me driving around downtown Raleigh today (scary, right?), and then afterwards my mom and I went over to the elementary school and I practiced parking (I'm not very good at that. Especially right-hand parking.)

The Parselmouths are an excellent band. This is my second-straight time through their CD I bought last night at the concert.

And also, since I wrote some reviews of it on here during the beginning of the season (which I won't be doing this time around), I figured I'd tell you that Syfy's Caprica will be starting up again in January. 

You Never Forget Your First...

...form rejection. Haha.

Yep. That is what I received in my inbox after the ROFLCOPTOUR concert tonight (speaking of which, Emily, I thought you were going to be there?).

It was a very nice one, though. I archived it. :D

As my Facebook status says, it was exciting for about ten minutes, and now I'm just sort of "yeah, that's what I expected." I only said "dejected" because of the similarity to "rejected." I'm actually okay with it. 

Unfortunately, for most of the other agents I plan on querying, I'll need to write a synopsis. Yay. Of course, it was something I probably should have done at some point anyway.

Also: I started my driving lessons with the Driving School Teacher today. I'm either paying attention to my speed and turning too far to the right, or paying attention to my steering and speeding or going too slow. But I've only been behind the wheel for less than two hours total, so that's alright as well.

The concert was awesome. I'll be uploading footage to my YouTube channel soon. I bought two new CDs and got my ALL CAPS one signed.

So that's cool.

And So It Begins

About ten seconds ago, I did something rather important, relatively speaking.

I emailed my query letter to an agent. Kristen Nelson, of the Pub Rants blog, to be precise.

And now I wait 5-10 days. Far more than likely, I'll get my first rejection letter, which will be ironically exciting in and of itself.

On an unrelated note:

Following a lot of literary blogs can get confusing. Ms. Nelson is the agent representing the Gallagher Girls series, which is the book of the month at Readergirlz  The Eragon fansite I follow posted about the Harry Potter Alliance last week. Various authors and agents know each other, and they mention each other in their posts. It's rather annoying to have to figure out who a person is before I read their post.

Also:

I found some romance earlier today that is non-cliche and slightly cheesy, except since its so unbelievably honest it doesn't seem that way. Unfortunately, I can't read it to you at a meeting, as it is private. Private, as in the "letter from my dad to my mom" kind of way. And non-cliche in the "We're already married and have kids" sense. 

I don't want to say anything more than that, but my dad is a great writer when he wants to be. I only wish he had the time and inclination.

My Quasi-Mandatory Bi-Weekly Wednesday Post

It's not that I made a rule for myself or anything. It's just that you guys always give me so much to think about, I end up having something to blog about after meetings. It's nothing specific this time, though. Just a collection of thoughts.

First off: I'm posting some footage of the wrock concert I went to last night. Here's the first of three videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBCg6MdoSj0&feature=player_embedded

The other two aren't uploaded yet.

There is an updated version of Clockwork where pretty much the only thing changed is in one of the last few chapters. I will send it to you. The change isn't important if it was real life, but from a literary/character arc point of view, it's vital.

We had a bunch of new people this week, and guess what happened! We talked about Twilight again. This is a trend. I said it last week, and I am saying it now. It always happens. This was considerably more... aggressive than last week, though. I'm surprised.

On that note, while we were walking out, Emily mentioned to me that she thinks it'd be interesting to find out whether there is a correlation between political party and Edward vs. Jacob (or at least Edward vs. Anti-Edward). This may be my project for AP Statistics senior year.

I like that we've been having more poetry at meetings recently, but I'm not sure why.

I spent the morning kicking loads of virtual butt in Diablo II: Lord of Destruction with my sister (four hours, but we didn't intend to play for that long). Then my other sister and I rehearsed various things for a song I've written (well, sort of. I wrote the words. It's a filk.) about NaNoWriMo. And that's all I'm going to say on that topic for now. More will be revealed as November approaches.

It's nice being a teenage author in that it really doesn't matter, from a monetary standpoint, whether or not Clockwork is published any time soon. Especially considering that I have a babysitting job for next week, I'm getting a third of my mom's organist pay (since I'm playing several things to help her out), and I never spend any money anyway (saving for Leaky Con 2011). 

It occurred to me last night that I was at a concert for bands I like...so I probably should have brought some money. Then I thought that it was probably a good thing after all. However, I'm going to bring some next week.

Why do most of the big events not directly related to my personal life but relevant to me happen on Tuesdays? (Okay, not really. Just yesterday's concert, next week's concert,  and nearly every YA novel release.)

Perhaps I should write several more paragraphs just so I'll still be working on this post when the second wrock video finishes uploading. But, as the Blibbering Humdingers said in the song linked to above, "I think that the crowd's had enough."

Subconscious Roots

I was just reading over my posts on my English class' forum regarding the quote "Ignorance is bliss." (Yes, I know I never posted the rest of that conversation like I promised. Sorry.)

And guess what I found: I found several paragraphs about true happiness (of course, you guys might not have finished The Clockwork Experiment yet, so you wouldn't know what that has to do with anything).

So that's where that came from.

See, I realized that I have a NaNoWriMo-originating CreateSpace code for a free copy of...something. So I've compiled a book of poems and short stories and non-fiction (including a few of my blog posts) to give to my grandma. So that's why I was looking at them.

I Did It

Well, I did it. I sent my query letter to the Query Shark.

Apparently I'm supposed to get an "acknowledgement message" within a week, and after that, it may or may not get posted on the blog.

I think I did a fairly decent job on it, but of course I do. I wouldn't have sent it to her if I didn't think so. And I must admit, I didn't wait a week before doing more revisions. And I didn't take notes. I've just been revising as I trundle through the posts.

After you guys finish reading Clockwork and I go for a final editing swipe or two...I guess it'll be time for me to start sending out the letter. That's a scary thought. Even now, I'm thinking "No! Get more people to read over it! There's no way it's ready yet! There's got to be something wrong with it!"

And maybe there is. Maybe there's an enormously terrible thing wrong with it that I don't know about. But that's what you guys are for.

The Query Shark

Today I went to http://queryshark.blogspot.com. The directions on how to submit a query for commentary (for those who don't know, Query Shark is a blog where prospective clients send queries, and the Shark tells them how to make the letters themselves better) read as follows:

BEFORE you send your query to the Shark do these things:

1. Read all the entries on the blog.

2. Make notes on what you read that you did not know.

3. Revise your query using the notes.

4. Let the query sit for a week. 

5. Revise again.

...and so on.

 I started reading the entries. Now I'm feeling very, very paranoid about the quality of my letter. I think it's good, but is it? And the people I sent it to are just people who were in my CW class and revised the letter the first time. They don't have any more experience than I do, so what do they know that I don't?
I'm thinking about sending it to my CW teacher...but maybe not. Of course, if the topic came up in class, he would probably say something like "Of course, I've never been published, so what do I know?".

I sent the poem at the end of Clockwork to my grandma (she enjoys reading my poetry) and she wants me to read it at her and my grandpa's 50th anniversary picnic (have I said that on here before?). She says it applies to their marriage. Well, any marriage.
When I wrote that poem a year or two ago, I didn't intend it to apply to marriage, but okay. And I just found out half an hour ago or so that she read it to some random people at a drumming circle she went to.
The poem certainly applies to me, in a more abstract way. This whole getting published process is...scary. I don't know anything. Well, at least it feels that way. Obviously I know some things, seeing as how I've gotten this far. Maybe I should go read it and remind myself that I only need to go on Amazon to see exactly how well these paths are trodden. It's not like some people are born knowing exactly how to do it.

All of you should watch this video: http://www.spiritling.com/profile/Wakanda/content/1561#t=profile_content
It's amazing.

Hurry Up, Guys. :D

I blog a lot. And now you're thinking something along the lines of "Well duh you have almost as many posts in June as there have been days in the month so far!"
Now, see, about that. I'm off of school for the summer, so I've been at home a lot more, and working on Clockwork a lot more, and thinking a lot more, so I have a lot more to say.

I saw a private street called "Awesome Street" today. Seriously. It's not on Google Maps though. I checked.

"Every breath I take brings me closer to my last, but if I stop breathing, death will come all the more swiftly."

Yesterday, I believe it was, I finished a round of editing and decided it was in a good enough condition at this point that I finally sent it to all of you in writing club. If you didn't receive it, that is a problem. Tell me if that happened. I also sent a revised edition of my query letter to the people who gave me feedback on it originally.

So today, I wasn't sure what to do from 9 to 12, as I don't really want to go back through for another editing swipe until you people have sent me comments and suggestions. I spent some of that time eating breakfast. Then I spent an hour (yes, an entire hour) converting italicized words to underlined words. I believe that is how agents and editors like manuscripts.
Then I shut down my computer and finished my breakfast and wished you lot would hurry up. I mean, 400 pages can be read in like five minutes, right? What's the hold up?

Well, regardless of how long it takes you, I hope you enjoy it.

My progress through For The Win is astonishingly slow, considering that I'm enjoying it.

That's about it. I could go on for awhile longer, but none of the things I could tell you are relevant, so I suppose I'll log off and wait for the new Doctor Who episode to be posted. I'll leave you with a link to a fascinating YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxIL4thb3NA&playnext_from=TL&videos=1HZS8CF2UBs&feature=sub

Quotes & Series

Here are some quotes my grandma sent me this morning. I emailed her a poem I wrote a year or two ago, and she asked me to read it at her and my grandpa's 50th anniversary picnic.


"Imagination is the highest Kite you can Fly."--Lauren Bacall
 "Everything you can imagine is real."--Pablo Picasso


Danny wrote a post about series (specifically, plotting them), and I figured I'd put in my two cents on the topic.


I've never wanted to write a series. Or, should I say, all three novels I've started writing (Ishaera, When the Sun  Was In Your Hair, and The Clockwork Experiment) started out as loners. Now, Ishaera has a possible prequel and the latter two both have potential sequels (ooh, I haven't told any of you that before, have I?), but all of them can still stand alone (although the end of Clockwork sort of begs for a sequel, and I already have a twist in mind).


But plotting a series? I shudder at the thought. I've noticed that the books in a series tend to get worse and worse the farther the series progresses. Whether this is true in Harry Potter is debatable, since the first and the seventh books are so radically different from each other, it might be that they shouldn't be compared.


The most notable exception (within my experience) to this trend would be the Ranger's Apprentice series by John Flanagan. All 8 of the ones I have read (9 doesn't come out in the U.S. until October, and there will eventually be at least twelve) are just as awesome and enjoyable as the first. This is because John Flanagan, as he said when I met him in May, refuses to write another book unless there's a legitimate story left to tell. He doesn't force it. He doesn't write more just to make money (although that's a nice bonus).
Another exception, in my opinion, would be The Icemark Chronicles by Stuart Hill. Things got slightly repetitive after the first book, but the additions of so many new characters and the growth of the old ones makes books two and three equally enjoyable.


There are other exceptions, both general and specific, but I'm generally opposed to series. I usually love the first book, and then sometimes start disliking, and then hating the rest. That is to say, there are many, many, many series that I've read all of and thoroughly enjoyed, but I expect not to. I'm often pleasantly surprised, but I'm predisposed to pessimism. 


So I love reading series (assuming ALL of them are well-written), but I highly doubt I'll ever sit down and decide to write one. If a sequel or two spring up, I'll write them, but never will something of mine start out that way.
At least, for now.