RTW: Persuade Me

     It's Wednesday again which means, Road Trip Wednesday. This week's topic:

What's the best book you've read in August?

     Well this one's easy-peasy. The best book I read this month would be this one:

     And can I just say, I love this cover- I wish mine looked like this. Anyway, I read this (again- a reread) because I'm rewriting it- modern style. I took pages and pages of notes on it which really helped me to appreciate the characters and all their different personalities. I feel like I really know them now, which is important since I'm writing them. It's interesting because I'm writing a book that's not my own, the characters aren't mine, nothing is mine. And so it's extra important to get to know them, to understand them, so I can stay true to Jane Austen's original characters. And then after all that, I'm trying to make the characters, and my version of the book, my own.
     Anyway, if you haven't read Persuasion, you should. Aside from Pride and Prejudice, it's my fave Jane Austen. Where I love and admire and wish I could be like Elizabeth Bennett, I really feel for and relate to Anne Elliot. Knowing you made a huge mistake and therefore ruined your happiness, and then having to watch the man you love court other women... well that would be absolute misery. The book also deals with different family relations, snobbery, and the duplicitous nature of certain people (which all of Jane Austen's books deal with, just in different ways).
     Read it, it's awesome. And then, a few years from now, read my version. Because it'll be just as awesome. HAHA.

Awards

     So first of all I want to thank everyone for their comments yesterday. I spent hours and hours researching and finally worked out my MC's new job and all of my locations except one. I'm too much of a control freak to leave it. Then I had to go through my 80-some pages and fix a bunch of stuff. But I'm glad I got that done. It only added about 500 words to my word count so I've got some catching up to do today.
     Wow, I've gotten some awards! Yay me! I'd like to thank my parents for being so awesome, my husband and children for putting up with me, and especially the Academy... oh wait. I'm not at the Oscars. Scratch that last. I'd like to thank Prerna Pickett at The Sands of Writing, Mel Fowler at Adventure Writes and Emily Stanford (my sis-in-law) at Write About Nothing for awarding me these awards. *cue the rounds of applause*

From Prerna, I received these two awards:

Here are the Rules:Thank and Link to the person who nominates you
Share Seven Random facts about yourself
Pass the award to five more blogger friends
Contact and congratulate the blogs nominated

So, the 7 random facts about me... hmm, I've already got 10 going on at a different page, but I'll try to think of different things...

1- I'm a boy band lover. It started with New Kids On The Block when I was very young, then more than ten years later came Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync, 98 Degrees, Boyzone, and Westlife. 'N Sync was my fave- I've seen them twice in concert and This I Promise You is my wedding song. Seriously. I still listen to Westlife now and I have a love for certain Big Time Rush songs, but mostly my love of pop boy bands has changed to punk/rock boy bands: Boys Like Girls, Simple Plan, Faber Drive, Marianas Trench, These Kids Wear Crowns, and One Republic.

2- When I was 18, I did a ten-day mini-mission in Perigueux, a small town in France. It was the only time I've travelled outside Canada/US. (Until this november when I go on a cruise- squee!)

3- I accidentally glued my eye shut once. It was very early in the morning, I was in a hurry, my contacts were stinging, and instead of grabbing the tiny white bottle with the blue label saying "eye drops", I grabbed the tiny white bottle with the blue label saying "nail glue". Oops. Luckily my mom was smart, wet a cloth, and told me to hold it to my eye for forever until the glue loosened it's hold on my eyelashes.
     To my disgruntlement, a few years later another girl did the exact same thing, called 911, made a huge fuss, and ended up on the Rosie O'Donnell show where she got lots of free stuff. All I got was some missing eyelashes.

4- I meticulously choose all of my characters names. In fact, I probably put way too much effort into it.

5- I started jazz at age 8. My first recital, I was a pigeon. My second- woody wood pecker. Luckily I've never had to dress as a bird since.

6- I collect dragons made by Tudor Mint. Yep, dragons. (I have the one above) I also have two Harry Potter shirts, one Twilight shirt, and one a mix of both. I try not to look like a nerd, but clearly, I am one.

7- I'm a huge Friends fanatic. I could probably quote you almost every episode in its entirety. No joke. And I laugh out loud during every episode.
("FORGET THE BUBBLEWRAP, THERE ISN'T TIME!")


     And from Mel and Emily I got this award (Liebster means friend- awwww):

THE RULES:1. Show your appreciation to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Post the award on your blog.
4. Bask in the camaraderie of the most supportive people on the internet—other writers.
5. And best of all—have bloggity fun and spread the love.

So, this may be a cop out, or maybe I'm just extra nice (you choose), but I'm going to award all three awards to the following five people...

1- Rachel- Dreamer, Bread Baker, Story Maker

2- Aimee Renee

3- Bookish Bird

4- Katie On Fiction

5- Magpie & Pen

Problems

     So I'm going really strong on my WIP. I'm at just under 25,000 words which is pretty good I think for only three weeks of work. It could have been more of course if not for life getting in the way as usual (like WriteOnCon, and a spur-of-the-moment camping trip this past weekend).
     Anyway, so I was thinking about my WIP last night and realized that I have a problem. Or two.
     I. Hate. That. I want to keep moving forward, keep writing. I don't want to have to stop and go back and fix something. Some people say, never go back until the whole thing is finished. Heck- I even say that sometimes. But one of my problems is this: I need to change my MC's job. This is an adult novel, not YA this time, and a job is pretty important to a person's life. I need my MC to have a job, and yet I need it to be in the background. A job that isn't daily 9-5. I thought I had it set, but then I realized, there is NO WAY my MC would spend four years of schooling to become a nurse (yes a nurse is what I picked) and then not actually NURSE. That's just not realistic. I can see it if she had kids or something. But she doesn't. In fact, if anything, she would want to get away from her family to do her job. So it makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER for her to get her nursing license and then not practice.
     So. Crap. I have some changing to do whether I want to or not. Because I can't move forward when this major part of my MC's life isn't sorted out.
     And this problem doesn't even include the fact that I haven't totally figured out my novel's locations yet. Yikes. Right now I have a whole lot of question marks where the places should be named. I need to figure this out too before I move forward.
     Am I the only one who needs to resolve problems before moving forward? Or can you ignore those things and fix them after the whole book is done?

Nothingness (Or more accurately- I'm A Rock Star, Crush of the Week, and A Couple Videos)

     I am such a rock star! Okay, maybe not, but I was interviewed over at Michelle Merrill's blog Perfecting the Craft. which makes me sort of feel like one. A little. Maybe if I play some Guitar Hero that will amp up my whole rock-star persona. Anyway, check it out. Michelle has an awesome blog, one of the first I ever followed.
     I missed Crush of the Week last week- my mind was too busy with WriteOnCon to be crushing on anyone (haha). But I've got one this week. Okay, I've mentioned Rupert Penry-Jones before, but I can't help it. He's the inspiration for the love interest in my WIP Sway. And by inspiration, I mean he is the guy. Usually I don't do this. Usually I have the character in my head and then as the book goes along I have fun coming up with different actors/actresses who could play my characters even though none really look like the version in my head. Not this time. Not with my character Eric Wentworth. He is this guy. I can't help it- RPJ is just who I picture as I write Eric. Another reason why I've chosen him for Crush of the Week is that this week I watched two movies he's in (research purposes, you know): The Four Feathers, and The 39 Steps (see pics from both movies below).

     And because I love videos (thanks to all those people who take the time to make them and post them on youtube- I didn't make this video, I'm borrowing it), I thought I'd add this video, in case, you know, you wanted to see more RPJ. Heehee.

     And speaking of videos, I went to the Taylor Swift concert last weekend and mentioned how amazing I thought it was. Then this week I found her new video for her song "Sparks Fly" which is clips from her concerts. So I thought I'd post the video in case anyone's interested in seeing what her concert is actually like. Enjoy!

    

What's the Spark Blogfest

     No, I haven't forgotten that I signed up to be part of this blogfest. I just figured mine would be a one-day post instead of all week.
     So what's my spark? Haha, I have no idea. Nice, right? I mainly signed up for this blogfest because I was really interested to hear what sparked other people to write. This week as I've thought about my own reasons, I came up with... well, not much.
     I was in grade 2 when I first wanted to be a writer. I don't remember why. I wrote a ridiculously long Alvin and the Chipmunks story and I think it's been since then that I decided to make writing my impossible dream. I wonder if a teacher or one of my parents, after seeing my enthusiasm for writing said to me, "You should be a writer!" so I was like, "Okay!" (Sort of like that flashback Friends episode where Chandler tells Monica she should be a chef and she says, "Okay!" Sorry, getting off track...)
     Since then I did a lot of story beginnings. Some very interesting (aka crappy) poetry. Even some sketches of imagined characters (these were even crappier than the poetry). But why did I want to write in the first place???
     I. Don't. Know!!! How lost does this make feel, I'm telling you.
     I remember reading Roald Dahl books when I was younger, Pippi Longstocking, the infamous Dear God, It's Me Margaret, and lots of ghost stories. I still even have some of those books. It wasn't until fifth grade, and one of my older siblings gave me this book that I think writing became more of a reality to me:

    

     Since then, I couldn't stop reading fantasy. Any Dragonlance book I could get my hands on, Lord of the Rings, anything by Piers Anthony and David Eddings- all these books became my life. And I knew I wanted to write fantasy. I was captured by made-up worlds of Elves, Dwarves, other fantastical creatures, and mostly- MAGIC. I wanted magic so badly. (Still do actually. Hence the HP love.)

     So I guess the Spark for me would be all of the above. And it would be all thanks to my older brothers and sisters who read and loved fantasy first and introduced me to that world.

     Funnily enough, I'm not writing fantasy now. I tried it and failed miserably. But I'm pretty sure that one day I will go back to it. It's my first love, and we all know how hard it is to forget a first love.

     So what about you? What's your SPARK?

    

Road Trip Wednesday

     This week's Road Trip Wednesday Prompt:

How do you beat writer's block? Do you go for a jog? Read a book? Go to a movie? Come on, share your secret - we're dying to know!

     Hmmm, when I started my first for-real book back in my late teen years, well- I didn't beat writers block. I would write when I felt the urge, or had a scene in my head, and then not write when there was nothing there. Let me just say that I don't recommend this method since I got maybe 15,000 words written in about oh, um ten years. Yeah. Not cool.

     When I started writing Daze and Knights, I didn't really have this problem. But, the main reason for this is that when I would clean, or run on the treadmill, or right before bed, I'd plan future scenes. I'd play them in my head. Sometimes, they would be what I needed next, other times they'd be scenes that would happen later on. That way, even if I wasn't writing the book from start to finish, at least I was writing. A lot of times I would have to fill in the in-between bits later.

     If I'm really stuck on a spot, I'll quit for the day. I'll just be like, screw it, this isn't happening today. But then I go right back to it the next day, sometimes deleting what I did the day before, but usually with a better way, or a way to carry on the scene. Or if I really don't have a way to fix that problem, or move forward right from that spot, I'll move onto to something later. I'll come up with a way to fix the problem eventually.

     So really, the best way for me is to just be able to think, away from the computer, on what I want to happen. On how I want my characters to interact. And usually I come up with something. Basically- I daydream.

    

Blog Birthday and Campaigning

     Just a few things...

     First, I can't believe I have fifty followers. It's seriously hard to believe anyone would care what I have to say as I ramble along on this blog. I started the blog a year ago now- I don't remember the exact date but it was last August- mainly as a journal for myself. A way to keep track of my writing journey and whatever else I have going around in my head. This past year has been great learning not only about myself as a writer, but meeting lots of other writers out there who are going through the same things I am. It's truly incredible.

     Secondly... okay, the word "secondly" sounds totally hoity-toity to me, I don't know why. Anyway, I'm joining up with the Platform Building Campaign. You can find it here. It sounds like a great opportunity to connect with even more writers out there. Check it out if you haven't already.

     Thirdly... there actually isn't a thirdly. Or maybe there would have been but I completely forgot what it was because I have two crying kids right now. (And no, I don't have a picture for that.) So...

     Now they're screaming at each other. Gotta go!