Curls, Fruit Juice and Writing

Lately, I've been scouring youtube for hair tutorials and I finally found a video that works for me. BeautyKLove is kind of awesome at this, her tutorials are simple and quite easy to do. I love her heatless, no product tutorials because I tend not to use both. And like her I also have thick long hair though my hair is frizzy and out of control. I should probably try her natural hair masks and the lot, it seems to be working for her.

Anyway, this is a tutorial I tried last night. I might have done one or two things wrong and I didn't even dampen my hair but it still works! Th curls are gorgeous, now let's see how long it would last on my hair.

Yes, my hair is that out of control. 

For me, this technique actually made my hair more orderly and smooth at the top (because the cocoon weighted my hair, so the the hair on my head is pulled straighter and smoother), and it prevent curls and such. I slept with my hair in the cocoons and no it didn't bother me at all, you have to make sure you do the cocoons properly though so it wouldn't loosen in the middle of the night. But seriously, it's worth it. My hair has never looks so good.

I would take a picture of the result but my camera is crap and my hair is a pretty dark color so all you can see is dark hair and none of the curls.

Her braid tutorials are also awesome, like this one!

My mom was here two days ago and I took the opportunity to buy a lot of fruits so I can make juice. I don't really use a lot of sugar in my juices I usually just let the sweetness of the fruit to come through. Yesterday was watermelon juice, today it's avocado.

The weather was totally hot yesterday so the chilled watermelon juice did wonders for my mood.

DreamWalkers is doing pretty great and I'm going to edit it and update chapter 3 to post today. About the Wolf Series, I'm still going over the contract while Mey Yeng is redoing the covers for me. She presented the  rough result yesterday and it looks EXACTLY has how I wanted. It looks BEAUTIFUL.

I'm also editing Wolf at the Door so I won't get any surprises. 

Book Talk: Karina Cooper's St.Croix Chronicles

One of the series I love this year due to awesome worldbuilding and interesting characters. 

In a version of Steampunk London, there exists two Londons: London Above and London Below. London Above is where royalties and rich people live in the fresh air while London Below is where the poor, the sick , and the criminals live in the midst of fog.

Cherry St. Croix is an heiress with a tarnished (see what I did there?) family reputation. She's impatient with the London society but she follows all the silly rules due to her chaperon Fanny, and the servants that is dependent on her for work and shelter. 

But in the cover of night, Cherry sneaks down to London below as a Collector, a bounty hunter. She dies her hair black and assorts with the dredge of society. She befriends gangs, prostitutes and criminals. She used to be one of them, you see? Growing up in an orphanage where the children are dosed with drugs to keep them quiet, Cherry has become dependent on opium, so she used her bounty booty to buy extra laudanum, and go hunt bad guys for the thrills. 

Cherry takes on bounties from the Midnight Menagerie, a pleasure garden/circus in London Below that caters to the whims of everyone in London for the exchange of coin. Strangely, while every bit of London Below is smothered in fog, the Midnight Menagerie is clear of all fog which add to the whispers of witchcraft and magic. 

Anyway, this is how it works, she brings her bounty to Hawke, the dangerous and shiveringly handsome Ringmaster and gets paid while trading insults. It is said that the Night Veil controls the Midnight Menagerie, think of them as a mystical Chinese triad. And if one doesn't pay their debts, you get your picture and information on the bounty board and people like Cherry will hunt your ass down.

Known to Hawke as Miss Black, she usually has free rein of the Midnight Menagerie, as she is known to the occupants from the prostitutes to the whips ( the officers, so to speak), but tonight is different. From Hawke cheating her out of her bounty, to him forbidding her to enter the garden. 

Stubborn, reckless, and a non-believer of that crappy thing called magic, Cherry gets into all sorts of trouble, from facing ruin in the eyes of London Above's society, hunting down killers, fighting possessions from spirits who wants her body, dealing with her increasing addiction, and getting into debts from the Night Veil.

It is not a pretty story, I hope there will be a happy ending. 

The characters are interesting with their many facets. I respect Cherry's determination and I understand why she needs her laudanum, but the increasing amount she's taken and then graduating to opium  kind of makes me want to smack her. And then her dismissive behavior towards magic and how self-absorb she is of Hawke's efforts to save her from herself and the Night Veil makes me want to smack her some more. One would say it is the drugs, but still. 

No one is quite evil (except for the Night Veil and even then not really), no one is quite good (our heroine is a drug-addict for God's sake) and the society both above and below demands their pound of flesh from you. 

As the books progressed, relationships wither and prosper, bonds are forged and torn apart, presumptions blown away, integrity dwindles, love lost and (hopefully) found again, honor shattered and glued back together again.

The chemistry between Hawke and Cherry is AMAZING. You can practically feel it sizzle between them and Hawke is such an interesting character. You don't know whether he is good or bad, but you can tell that he tries to spare Cherry from the clutches of the Night Veil, but Cherry is frustratingly dense, making his efforts in protecting her null and void. 

Anyhow,  I gave these books a proper 4.5/5 stars. 

I LOVED IT and I will reread it again and again. 

Dreamwalkers: The DreamCast of DreamWalkers: Sen Kimura and Mede...

Dreamwalkers: The DreamCast of DreamWalkers: Sen Kimura and Mede...: I've actually done this before but the story is so different now from Medea's character to Sen being the main male character. So, l...

Dreamwalkers: DreamWalkers-Chapter 2

Dreamwalkers: DreamWalkers-Chapter 2: chapter theme: My heart gets lost like a message My head is on the clouds and I don’t get it And so I’m fashionably n...

Some days, I wish that internet doesn't exist for the sole reason of this. The internet like everything else can be horribly abused, it can be a media to spread joy and love and pictures of cute cats but it is also a breeding ground for casual hate. I use the word casual is because it makes it easier for horrible people to spread around their vileness with the ease of pushing a button. They are no consequences as in face-to-face confrontation, no consideration for the weight of words as when you put pen to paper in a letter. As much as I love the internet it gives anonymity to cowardice, selfishness, and pettiness. 

-what I was thinking today because of a friend's post about cyber-bullying.

Publishing News, Wolves, and Baking Fiasco

Soooo, remember my Wolf series, the one with, obviously, wolves? Or to be more precise, werewolves? Yeah, I'm considering a deal with another publisher, the book will be in ebook format only though but since it also has deals with iTunes, the book will have more reach.

We're still discussing details though, and am checking out the contract now. It's not a done deal, yet but--am in high hopes.

If you want to refresh your memory or haven't read it yet, you can check out some thoughts on the book, and the first three chapters on the story blog.

Here are things that you should check out:

Where Everything Begins

-On how the story came to be. 

The Werewolf Mythology

-How the mythology works in this book.

The Wolf Series #1 Wolf at the Door chapters: 1, 2, 3

...was trying to make doughnuts today, totally forgot to double the yeast. It did not go well. Damn. 

Dreamwalkers: DreamWalkers Chapter 1

Dreamwalkers: DreamWalkers Chapter 1: Medea didn’t know where she was.  She was still in her pajamas standing in the middle of a forest at night. Her heartbeat qui...

Sleeping Song, Sen oh Sen and Writing

Oh, how I love listening to this song when I'm going to sleep. And I so, so love the arrangement and the lyric.

She like the fragrant taste of rain 

Rests in my senses relentless, restless 

Dripping and diving in taunting drops 

Through my blue sky barren being 

And I am searching for the sign of the smallest cloud 

Split to disintegrate upon the ground and 

Gasping, cracking like the skin of my craving tongue 

Dry like the veins of a heart without love 

And I cannot tell the way she feels away from me 

Like a layer to be shed 

It is carved in stunning shapes and patterns on my soul 

Carried like dreams to places nobody could never go 

Carried like dreams to places nobody cannot go

I get chills when words are used and shaped so beautifully. And I love the way the words sound and linger on my tongue and echoes inside my chest. Such powerful things, words.

Book is finally shaping up. Sen is a much more interesting character than I thought and I giggle everytime I discover more of him. He's simply delicious. So laidback and yet so capable of bulldozing over everything he considers unimportant. So rigid over the rules unless it is a rule that he wants to break. He gets obsessive about things that he like and dismissive over what he doesn't. So dependable and yet untamed. Delicious. *cackles*

And we've finally reached the scene where my favorite character shows up: YOHAN!!!! My sly and secretive Yohan, my expressive, artistic Yohan, my steady-as-rock Yohan, my unpredictable and heartbreaking Yohan. *sighs with satisfaction*

I'm surprised how different Medea is when she is with Yohan, in fact I'm surprised by how mutable she is. She changes character whenever she changes company, it's kind of worrisome. I don't have a steady grip onher character yet, but perhaps that's the whole point, since she is bleep and since she's been bleep, of course she is bleep.

#campnanowrimo day 7 wordcount: 4182. Slow but steady. I am pleased so far with our progress.

Movies I Look Forward to, DEAR GOD NO, and JK Rowling

Who else wants to watch Guardians of the Galaxy? I'm merely in it for Rocket of course. Oh, and I love the use of that song. It works.

It's official. Sen is the main lead character. Not Firdaus. But we have a Chapter 1! WOHOO!

JKR seriously simplifies my life as a writer. Now, whenever I need to jot down the personalities of my character (or describe it to somebody else), I don't need to use a lot of words, I just sort them out to the Houses of Hogwarts. I do that for real life also.

Friend: So, what's he like?

Me: He's a lot of Gryffindor with a tad of Slytherin.

Friend: Got it. Cool. 

I'm still catching up on my supposed wordcount though. Still behind. Oh, and I should also fix my sleeping habits. The migraines are coming pretty close together and you know what that means.

VAMPIRE GENE: OFF!

My eyes are also very tired lately and my skin looks tired. GAH. I should go outside and exercise.

Don't laugh.

Wordcount #5: 3225

Music, Camp NaNoWriMo and the Muse

Love this song. It makes me feel good.

Camp NaNoWriMo April is here so I'm doing that, I've entered with DreamWalkers.

Speaking of DreamWalkers, Muse is at it again. Somehow, I get the impression that She doesn't want Firdaus to be the main male lead but Sen...and I'm starting to warm towards that idea.

GASP.

Now what?

Well, since it's Camp NaNo, we'll just see how it goes. I'm excited though, this is a twist that I'm not expecting. I'm interested how the whole thing will change.

I can already see enough changes that I will have to make just in the first chapter. YES, although Muse screwed me with the changing of male leads but at least this time she did it in the FIRST chapter and not in the middle of the book like last time. THAT WOULD SUCK.

I'm seriously interested on how this would work though because with Firdaus and Medea, it's obviously opposite attracts but Medea and Sen? I'm not quiet sure where that would lead. *rubs chin*

But then again, I'm probably counting my chickens to early because the story might change later on. The possibilities though.....

I'm starting to get excited!

Maybe changing the male lead would be the jumpstart that this book needs.

But Firdaus is such an interesting character. Maybe there'll be a book about Firdaus later. Have no clue what that would be about but it would be a waste of a good character if I didn't write about him. But that will be later.

wordcount #2: 656