In Which Our Heroine Says Adios

So I have decided to leave blogspot. Love the friends I've made here, but dual-blogging is not good for me. You can stalk me here from now on: www.livejournal.com/users/seeyouupside

However, before I go, I'm leaving you with a poem I wrote for Creative Writing:


It is fairy dust that guides me in
and leads me away into the garden of words and wisdom
bright colors light up the sky and I spin until I’m dizzy and my head aches
Though your words are magic, floating around your lips like cigarette smoke
I still see Los Angeles and drunk crowds of girls
their shirts too tight and their skirts too hiked up

It is the fairy-folk that seduce them
Glittering eyes and invisible wings
their lips taste like fire, delicious to the soul, burnt to a crisp
my head is pounding when we walk into the club and
music bounces off one ear and out the other
you say its usual
I don’t believe you

One of them - their eyes dolled up in silver eyeshadow
Makes a pass at me and I may have felt myself blush like a school girl
cooties are one thing, this is another
Leading me, fingers entwined like branches
I am a tree, stable, but not tonight

Tonight I am someone else
not sure who she is or who I am
but she is full of life and smiles and arms outstretched like
she owns the world
Gold glitter falls on top of her like autumn leaves in a pile waiting to be picked up
no one picks me up

I am on the floor breathing
Fairy faces lean in towards me and I know
I know this is the end as I know it
their lips graze mine
kisses like juice of fruit spilling down my chin

In Which Our Heroine Finishes

I feel like I am light years ahead of everyone right now and I am totally not sure why.

I wrote this entry up originally at 2 AM, two hours after I completed (yes, completed) my WIP. It is untitled and therefore I have no idea what else to call it except 'WIP.'

It is not my secret idea of awesome, which was about Zelda Fitzgerald. (That is still on the back burner, waiting for its turn.) No, this WIP is a contemporary YA completed in 5 (or 6? I am not very good at mathematics) weeks. Yes, 5 weeks.

It took me 9 months to write The Rose Kingdom, so for me to write my next/second novel (which was actually my sixth novel idea at the time) in 5 weeks is crazy AWESOME!!!

I have no idea what I am going to do to celebrate, but I promised myself (and Alex Bracken) I'd be out on the hunt for her novel BRIGHTLY WOVEN in stores. So after classes today, I think I'm going to do that. And then write a five-page paper. Ick.

The song that REALLY represents this novel to a tee is 'A Rush of Blood to the Head' by Coldplay. I found the lyrics when trying to figure out why the lyrics on someone's blog sounded so familiar, and then I listened to this song on repeat for like eighty bazillion hours as I wrote a few scenes.




I am so beyond proud of myself, and I know that sounds cheesy but I really don't care. I worked with a few jotted ideas and then ran with it. I never outline, but in this case I semi-needed to because it was an unusual timeline. The characters are wonderful (and a bit creepy, if I say so myself) and I had a hard time leaving the 'writing' part of them.

But now I look forward to edits. :-)

In Which Our Heroine Does (Another) Friday Five

Happy Friday, everyone!

1. I dance-vlogged again for Kody Keplinger. You can see it here. Go, watch, enjoy!

2. Ask me anything you want and I'll vlog it/dance it/answer it here...

3. I'm up to 28k in the WIP and feeling pretty good. My next writing goal is to get to 30k. Do you have any writing goals this weekend?

4. I'm having a write night with Steph, and I'm SO excited!! I love sharing snippets and asking random questions and IMing every hour or so.

5. News on the pub. front: Kody got her ARCs, Mandy Hubbard got her ARCs and Victoria Schwab is learning all about her cover. Woot woot!!

In Which Our Heroine Answers Five Questions

So, desperate for something to blog about (wow, that makes my life sound boring; I swear its not**), I asked (re: begged) Sumayyah to ask me five questions that I would answer on the blog.

If you have any questions, you'd like me to answer, ask away in the comments. Please! I love answering questions! :-)

1. If you could be a mythical creature, what would you be? How does this reflect your writing?

I'd be a unicorn. I love them. I mean, they sparkle and have a horn! What's not to love about 'em? Unless they're in the book Rampant by Diana Peterfreund, where the unicorns are evil and kill people.

And to be honest, I think unicorns are the opposite of my writing. I don't think they reflect my writing at all. Most of my best writing is dark, moody and angry, which is in contrast to the sparkly unicorns I adore.

2. What is the most epically heart wrenching scene you have ever written? Did you have to wrench your heart out of your chest to write it?

The most heart wrenching scene I've ever written was actually a poem I wrote in sixth grade. It was from the point of view of a mother, who came home from work to find her daughter dead from suicide. So, I guess to answer this question properly, the exact scene where the mother comes home and finds her daughter dead. And no, my heart was not wrenched out while writing it.

3. What is the song that embodies your writer's soul? Why?

The song that embodies my writer's soul (what is that? Sumayyah, I'm making you answer me on your own blog. Now, go!) is Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. I know that sounds crazy and probably should've been from one of my favorite bands (Death Cab for Cutie or maybe that Paperback Writer song from the Beatles), but whenever I hear BR, I want to get up and dance. And then write. Oh, and then walk down the street ridiculously like in Spider-Man 3.





4. If you were the reincarnation of a writer, which one do you think you would be?

In real life: F. Scott Fitzgerald. He's my writer-husband. Someone once compared a short one page story that I wrote to prose of Scott's, and I basically died right there.

In fiction: Josephine March. She's just so great! And she believes that she can live off her writing and be awesome, which was incredible for the time that she was growing up.


**I went to the Tim Burton art exhibit today. See, my life isn't boring! :-P

In Which Our Heroine Talks About Her Day

Hi, new followers! *waves*

I know someone of you are here because of my incredible (ha, very funny) dancing on Kody's blog. My challenge (besides reading 100 books in 2010 -- I just got up to #24 and #25 today!) is to dance to every song of her playlist for her new project, Project L. I made videos for her other songs on the playlist (i.e. that Veronicas song I can't name and that Ashley Tisdale one), but YouTube hated me and disabled my sound every time I tried to put them up. So they're on Facebook.

However, besides dancing to music, I write. Kinda. Well, most of the time.

Today, however I hung out with my guy BFF Dan and we went to Border's. Yeah, that's right. My guy BFF Dan and I spend time hanging out in Border's. (Don't worry we also do normal stuff like talk for hours and play with the Wii.) We spent about two hours in there. I ended up reading Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers as well as The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove by Lauren Kate. I liked them both. :-)

But truthfully, I read them as research.

My current WIP is what I'd like to call a mix between The Hate List by Jennifer Brown, Some Girls Are and The Betrayal of Natalie Hargrove.

And in order for me to really love my WIP even more than I already do, I needed to read those books. I needed to combine them in my head so I could figure out my little WIP. Enjoying those books is just an added bonus. Because I do love those books and I know my WIP is not completely like any of them, but yet it has qualities *of* them. Because nothing is a completely original idea anymore. (sighs wistfully)

So my question to you is: Do you read other books that are similar to yours when you're exploring/loving/writing your WIP? Or do you avoid the genre at all costs?

In Which Our Heroine Does a Friday Fiiiiive

Friday Five! Oh man, I haven't done one of these in a while...

1. Spring break begins today! Woo hoo! This means going home, seeing the BFF, writing, reading for pleasure, and seeing my family. It also means eating decent food at home; no dorm food for a week! :-)

2. Its sunny today! Unfortunately its not warm enough to wear just a sweatshirt. I still need a coat. Grrr. Oh well. I can just pray for spring, right?

3. I got to 21,000 words in my WIP. I'm hoping to keep having this type of enthusiasm and speed for this project. I did have a moment of OMG-what-am-I-doing? but I think it was due to stress and midterms (which are thankfully now over).

4. I really like the simplicity of Blogger. Thanks K.Botts for introducing me to this website!

5. Yesterday, I bought the movies HEATHERS (I love the movie. Seriously! If you haven't seen it, please, please rent it!) for $7. I know it could be cheaper, but the usual cheap place only had it for $10 "on sale" and this $7 one was at Barnes and Noble. Plus I couldn't wait any longer. I need the movie in my life permanently. <3 

In Which Our Heroine Meets an NYT Bestselling Author

First off, hi new followers! *waves* I'm still getting the hang of this thing. Thanks for following me and you all better teach me how to use this. Please? ;-)

Lately I've been full speed ahead with my writing (I got to 20k in 9 days, and usually takes me at least 3 months to get that type of word count), but last night I felt myself really annoyed with my writing. I was writing words just so I could fill a page. For now I've come to realize me and midterms AND writing don't mix, so I'm dropping my work-in-progress until Friday at 2:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. I need time to focus on those essays I've been totally not putting off and relaxing...if I can. ;-)

A definite up was I went to a local Barnes and Noble's with a friend and met Jodi Picoult. Yup, Jodi Picoult of "My Sister's Keeper", "The Pact", "Nineteen Minutes" and her newest novel "House Rules." Unfortunately I didn't get to talk to her much, except to say I loved her books, but she did sign my copy of "House Rules." Which is very, very cool.



After the signing, my friend and I got lunch at the mall's food court. We ate, talked, complained about our upcoming English Lit. in-class essay, and then who do we see walk by us but Jodi! Like the good English-Creative Writing majors we are, we do some giggling and stalking. Then, she walks by us again. She turned toward us and I waved. Not only did Jodi wave back, but she gave me the biggest grin I've ever seen. I honestly felt like it was me who was the NYT Bestselling author. ;-)

Then after much window shopping/trying on clothes but not getting anything, we went back to our dorm and I went to study for my Spanish exam. I was pretty confident. I'd done everything I thought I could do in preparation for this test, and I went in knowing I studied and worked my butt off. However, coming out of the exam, I felt like I had done horribly. Now I don't know about you, but I feel there's nothing suckier than coming out of a test feeling like you did horribly.

Well, I went on Facebook to check if anyone had written anything on my wall because, well, Facebook is addicting like that. Lo and behold was this message from a friend. It made my night better. It erased the fact that I felt bad about my test. As corny as this sounds, it turned my frown upside down:

I just want you to know that I've been keeping up with your progress and I'm very proud of you. Whenever I think I can't do something I just think to myself "Rachel's making it happen and so can I." :)

*cue the crying*

In other news, I vlog with Kristin (who, by the way, more or less made me join Blogger by stating it was easier than Livejournal). Last night during a break from one my papers, I finally vlog responded. It includes a dance party. Don't believe me? Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TpQcEWaB8M

Alright, I have to go and write more of that paper.

<3