Sunday, February 27, 2011

Writer's Angst

Wow, it's almost a month to the day since I last posted. Well that's better than last time, lol.

1. I've written 2 fan fic stories since I last posted here: Hair Without the Shirt (  Cheveux sans la chemise ) and 10 Things You Never Knew About Severus Snape's Mum. Both are available at fan fiction.net. I'd like to post them here but I still haven't gotten the hang of the formatting. So I guess I'll just have to go with links.

2. I'm still burnt out from all the work I did on Confessions of a Cornwall Grad Chapter 3. ( See Cornwall Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 to catch up. ) So while I have glimmers of Chapter 4 in my head, they aren't amounting to too much.

3. However, I did what I always do when my writer's well runs dry: I made a run to Borders, had my usual green tea latte, bought some new music ( deluxe edition of Alanis Morissette's album Flavors Of Entanglement; the song Orchid made it worth it ), bought 2 new DVDs, and bought a book on Angels. All purchases were made after I quaffed latte ( and snarfed plain bagel with butter ), while sitting peacefully in the cafe and killing a chapter in my re-read of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.

4. Alanis' deluxe album has a cute ( maybe a little too precious! ) song about tequila on it. It's fun. Made me wonder what Severus Snape would get up to if Demeter could get him drunk enough. I think I just might have stumbled across an opening scenario for Cornwall Chapter 4...

5. I'm consumed with angst over an open house I'm scheduled to attend this coming Saturday. It's for people interested in getting an MFA in Creative Writing, among other majors. I could apply while there because the fee is waved. But I refuse to do so. First because I don't really have enough time or energy. Second because I'm scared. And third because I REFUSE to rush. Last time I did something like this I rushed and it didn't work out. Now I'm taking my sweet-ass time.

6. I've been inundated with thoughts and images and sounds for chapter 2 of The Healer's Apprentice. I'm feeling the need to write this chapter - which would take away from Cornwall. But Healer's has languished longer than Cornwall, albeit it only has 2 reviews. What makes it harder is that the emotional architecture is filling itself in. I've been doing LOTS of work with Kate Bush's classic album The Hounds of Love ( especially the songs Under Ice, Waking the Witch, Jig of Life, and Hello Earth ) as well as her sublime latest album Aerial, especially the second disc A Sky of Honey. BRILLIANT work. Add in Sting's The Soul Cages and I pretty much have nearly everything I need. I've been alternating lately with Sade's Love Deluxe, especially her gorgeous instrumental track, Mermaid.All of this is rattling around in my head to help me construct the character of Ophelia Broomall, my - hopefully NOT Mary Sue - original character love interest for Severus. Yes I do need a life, now that you mention it...

7. I've made tremendous, although still nascent, progress on my original story. Right now I'm calling it Alice Darkly and that's all I can say about the title. But I've created 2 characters who I think are the most powerful I've ever created. And neither of their names shows up in a Google search. So they're ALL MINE * cackles evilly *

8. I feel a change coming. And I don't know if it's for good or ill. This sounds flaky but...astrologically my sun is in Scorpio and, more importantly, my moon is in Pisces. I'm one of those folks who can sense atmospheres in a room or sometimes tell who's on the phone when it rings before I pick it up. Yeah. And the spidey- I mean Pisces signal is saying something's looming on the horizon. And you know I've had ENOUGH pain in my life. I REALLY don't want or need another dose right now. God has been surprising me with a lot of good things lately. I hope He keeps up the pattern.  I'm just not ready for tears again...

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Amazingly, this blog is still alive...although just barely.

Also amazingly, I've completed chapter 3 of Confessions of a Cornwall Grad. Let's see if I can possibly post it the way I'd like to.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There are houses and then there are HOUSES...

Confessions of
a Cornwall Grad

Chapter 3

Author’s Note: *sobs* Yes it took over a year to add chapter 3. Mea culpa. Partly it was real life distracting me. Partly it was myself becoming obsessed with creating a whole world and not just another story.

Author’s Thank You’s: HUGE, HUGE thanks to Helena and Penni for embracing my madness and reading draft after draft. I couldn’t have gotten this far without you. I feel free to boot my patootie into Chapter 4, lol!

Disclaimer: You know the drill – With the exception of my gal Demter and assorted secondary original characters, JKR owns ‘em. I just mess about with them for a bit – purely profit free of course.

Minor Britpick Note: I tried to avoid too many Americanisms. And yes I know the counties no longer have to be included in postal addresses and the address included below is probably all kinds of wrong. All I can say is that I actually went to the Royal Mail website to learn about the UK address system and only came away with a headache (Why do your county lines keep moving? ) C’est la vie!

*~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**