NEW STORY BLOG

Since #GoV is still such a mess, I'm going to share you the other story that came to me. Here there be snippet, title is FATELESS! It's a story about the ficklness of fate (obviously), desert pirates, riches, betrayal, love, friendship,swordfights, political intrigue, and most of all magic. 

Guys, guys, look. It's the publishing contract!! Signed, Sealed and Delivered

and hey, found some jewelry that reminded me of Touched

MangaTalk: Bokura Ga Ita

In Bokura Ga Ita, one of my favorite angsty mangas there is a line that I both feel for and hate with the burning hatred of a thousand suns, 

"When you are met with two people who are drowning. Who would you choose? I choose the one who can't swim" 

The main male character Yano gives this question to explain his choices about the two woman in his life, one who he thinks of as strong and the other who is in a weaker state of mind.

Guess who he chose. 

What kills me is, he chooses whatshername solely for guilt and misguided repsonsibility, and he justifies his choice in abandoning the girl that he actually love by saying, "She's strong. She's stronger than her, even stronger than me."

As if being strong means that one will just get over the hurt and carry on. 

And to further the hurt is that his misunderstanding of the word strong. It's not that the strong are impenetrable to hurt or pain, they feel it, but they just don't show it.

Admittedly, Yano is twisted by his mother and his  cheating dead ex-girlfriend, and that one of the qualities that he loved from Takashashi is her strength that enables her to be so giving, so compassionate and so cheerful despite the odds and to his thoughts, despite the kind of person that he is.

But what Yano doesn't understand is that kind of strength doesn't come from thin air; it comes from practice, from keeping up a smile in the hopes that for just one second that smile will be genuine. That kind of courage comes from having to face one's trouble head on and living through the wounds. That kind of compassion comes from having injuries and hurts that once gaped bloody and are now scars.

And that killed me, it killed me that Yano doesn't understand that and left Takahashi who, yes admittedly, was able to move on without him, at least on the surface.

But inside, inside she is still that seventeen year old girl, waving her boyfriend goodbye at the train station with only a promise to hold onto.

My My My

It's been a while since I've posted anything in any of my blogs. Sorry blogs, I've been busy. 

I'm still writing, though progress is slow but I'm getting to the 50K NaNoWriMo word count. Either than, I have been spending time with my friends and my cousin and her family.

This is probably the handful of times that I had a chance to be alone. But hey, Editor said contract will be sent today, God willing. 

Today, will be meeting my friends Zie and Dhee for a little girl bonding. And I also want to buy Gail Carriger's Soulless, since I can't seem to find Sarah Rees Brennan's Unspoken. Grrr.

Am sending final draft of Touched-edited manuscript to publisher, am freaked that I missed a word/a typo. My brain often skips through them and just fill in the blanks by itself so I never notice them until someone points it out. And since publishing something in English is a new thing for my publisher, they don't have someone who can proofread in English, and I seriously need one...and a Grammar Nazi to point out my stupidity.

Other than that, I'm good. Still feeling a little nauseated about family drama and I really want to avoid going home for as long as I could but--

...oh well. *shrugs*

Oh and hey, new story idea which is aweeeeeesome!!! I really like the female character in this new idea of mine, and the rapid-fire sass between her and the main male character. Funnily, I got this idea when I was channel surfing and my attention was caught by the 2011 version of Conan the Barbarian.

It'll be another fantasy of course, and I already kind of know the main plot, and I know there'll be sword fights and magic, and strange destinies, humor and most of all angst. I can practically taste the angst.

The female character would be different from most of my female characters who are mainly easy going, she's going to be rigid and kind of a tight ass about her rules since she was raised in a sort of magic nunnery. She upholds goodness and kindness and compassion on a pedestal but is jaded enough to be practical when the occasion calls for it.

Since she was little she was forcefed by the high priest and priestesses that she has some sort of special destiny that she has to fulfill no matter what the price. She's not all that sheltered, but she's sheltered enough to feel aghast when she runs into a group of desert pirates, one of them being the male character.

The male character is uber-practical, as one would be when one is born into a tribe of desert travellers. He's practically royalty since his tribe is a big and prosperous one, highly sucessful in finding and trading things with countries that general people have never even heard of. But one day, his whole tribe was massacered because they were accused of hiding a traitor of the nation etc. A small number of them, him and his brother and his friends survived and they became what they are now: desert pirates, living day by day in hiding and always up for a brawl and misbehaving, especially when there is the Sultan's gold involved.

It's a clash of black and white and shades of grey really. The story promises to be a fun one. And I'm excited about writing it....

I just realize how "promises to be a fun one" is not something that I should be saying, in fact I should be saying "it's going to be a lot of fun" you know, like I'm certain that it will.

But you know what? This is how I write, I discover the story rather than making it up. My stories are usually already there inside my head, I just have to pick one and march on, following each thread of the story as I write.

Soooo

...yesterday I met publisher/agent and we've hashed out some details that needed to be revised from the contract. New contract will be sent on Monday.

Other than that, since I've been kind of busy meeting friends and baby sitting, I've been missing three days of writing. 

I know. Horrible. How will I ever make up for it?

BY WRITING 4K WORDS TOMORROW, DAMMIT!!

Tomorrow I would have some time to pound the keyboards because I'm meeting Bie and GB at 7 PM. I'm hoping I can make some headway for #GoV, I mean, damn, this book is kicking my ass!!!

BTW, have you guys checked out the new trailer of Cassandra Clare's The Mortal Instrument: City of Bones? One word: AWESOME.

And on other news....well, family DRAMA is seriously not helping my state of mind.

Other than that, hey, this is interesting: What Bestsellers Do Differently than Everyone Else. 

Oh, and hey, chapters 1,2, and 3 of Jim Butcher's latest Dresden book Cold Days.

BIG DAY TODAY!!!

Ooooh, big day. BIIIIIIIIIIG DAY. Am meeting with editor of publisher and the CEO of my lit agency. We'll be signing the contract so we can move along the publishing process. So of course right now, I'm being a complete worry-wart. Wondering what to wear...for like five seconds. And that's quite a feat.

Am in Jakarta right now, found out some things about FAMILY DRAMA from cousin D who I am currently eating out of house and home. Am feeling uneasy about moving again and I know if I think about it, I'll stress myself out and I'm having a hard time writing already so, should compartmentalize that for when I'm not so busy.

Am making some appointments to meet friends and...well, am trying to continue writing #GoV, although I always end up writing #WAH instead. I can't help myself.

Anyway, have already made appointments to meet Dhee, Zie, Twin and GB and Nino'. I know, I have no friends that have normal nicknames, although why would you have a normal nickname anyway? If you want normal go with your real life name, you know?\

But, I digress.

Anyway, am hoping really, really hard that this deal will move forward so I can finally say I'm a published author....which would be all my dreams come true. 

Where My Characters Do A Gandalf and Yelling, "YOU SHALL NOT WRITE!!"

My #GoV characters are killing me. KILLING ME. They are willful, stubborn, and being such a pain in the ass right now.

It's like TOUCHED all over again.

I thought, hey, maybe I'm just having a slow week, so as a test, I switched to WAH and, that went great, easy and practically writes itself. So, I come to the conclusion that it's #GoV that's a problem right now.

Other than that, life is good, the house is finally sold and we're dealing with that. I'm glad that my property agent is awesome sauce and they made the process way easier than I thought.

My mom will be here tomorrow and we'll leave by the 13th.

I will however, stay at Jakarta for a few days because I'm meeting editor at the 14th, possibly meet some of my friends especially Dhee who is six weeks pregnant. YEAH!!!

Other than that, I'm kind of excited to get some books.

I was feeling quite bummed about moving away from Yogya but I guessed I'm all bummed out right now. I have accepted and now I'm just blah.

Well, back to writing. Oh, and finally could figure out what the major plot of GoV is. Funny though, there's not much of a romance to this book, which I'm kind of worried about. But then again, WATD was like that but suddenly, ha, Lei and Kai happened.

Oh well, let's see.

I'll let my characters guide me. Muse, imbue my hands with magical powers.

Updates on #TOUCHED, the sequel to #WATD which is #WAH

Holla there, to those who missed my WATD characters, I GIVE THEE SNIPPET. That's right!!! SNIPPET!!!

And hey, I can use this mock cover now!!! Oh, anyway, news on #TOUCHED, I will be meeting with editor on the 14th, we've finally agreed on the content of the contract, so, we can finally move on!!!!

YEY for PUBLISH!!! YEY FOR PROGRESS!!!!

Updates on Guardians of Volk

Wohoo, writing is going GREAT...and I'm hoping I'm not jinxing myself for later. But anyway, here are snippets, yes, snippet with an s, there are 2 snippets for you read!!!!

GUARDIANS OF VOLK SNIPPETS

The awesome thing is, I've finally figured out what to write on the 2nd and 3rd book, well, actually I just merged some ideas for books together and voila, awesomeness!!! It's really going to be GREAT!!!

Have updated Dreamcast of The Guardians and The Companions.

*wipes brow*, evidently when you have 18 sort of Main Characters, you really have to do a dreamcast whether you want to or not. It helps to get them straight and when you want to describe how they look.

Have finally finished with the dreamcast, had a hard time in finding Indian/Middle Eastern Actors/Models to dreamcast. Anyway, you find it here.

And 1st snippet Guardians of Volk could be found here!

NaNoWriMo is here!!!!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!

Okay, here I am at Dunkin's writing and waiting for a friend. Have started on Guardians of Volk, and shall be known from now as #GoV and have ended on a high note: 2015 words.

Good enough for the first day though I shall continue writing at home. I'm quite proud of myself.

Will probably post some snippet later at blog. Later. Maybe. Perhaps. Tee hee.