IT"S DONE!

Well just in time to put on my list of writing accomplishments for 2005, I have completed the rough draft of my first novel. After pushing myself to finish it for NaNoWriMo and failing, I decided to push myself to finish it by the end of the year. Today I got up and struggled through the last chapters. Now keep in mind it's not really finished. I'll put it aside and read it later. I already have notes on things I should check for. So to give you a lot of info would be a bad idea, seeing as how I'll probably tear it apart considering how I feel about my work(I never think it's good). I will tell you this, right now it stands 22 chapters long.

To wrap up my New Year's Eve post I wanted to say how excited I am that in this year I got my first fiction story published and had an ashcan made for my first comic book(hopefully to come in 2006) . There were many other things to be proud of. Out of all the submissions I sent out I received 22 rejection notices. That means 22 people may have taken the time to read my work! I also have wonderful people reading my blog that I started this year, thanks everyone! It's a lot to be happy about.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Just a little list.

Now that the Christmas chaos is over and I am on vacation, there should be a big list of things I've gotten done this week. Well there isn't.
I'm trying to finish my novel so I can put it on my things accomplished list for the year 2005 .

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I hope that Christmas has gone well for everyone. Mine has been great! I thought long and hard about what to get my faithful readers for Christmas. I gave my live journal readers fabulous holiday photos, but what about my blog readers? Since this is about my journey in writing, I should post some work. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten anything new done in a while, but I did come up with a good idea. Here is the link to the second story I had published in Pandora's Gate. I promised it a while ago and finally searched for it today, just for you.
http://paperdragonink.com/november_issues.htm. Click on the issue with my name in the credits to read "Double Take 2: Sophomore Year", or don't , whatever. Sorry it isn't better but it's creative and free. What do you expect from a struggling writer? Maybe I'll post some new work for a belated gift if I get as much work done in my week off as I plan to.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Bragging rights?

I got a pretty awesome grade in my class. I hate posting my good grades, because it feels like bragging, so I'm not going to. I know this whole blog is pretty much bragging about things, but I don't feel you really can call it bragging when you get published in the community college newspaper. Who's going to be envious of that? Pretty much anyone can do it, they just have the sense not to.

I haven't accomplished much on anything lately. I'll make a poor excuse and say I'm preoccupied with the hustle and bustle of Christmas. I do go on vacation next week and with school out as well, I should just crank out the work. Who knows what I'll get accomplished? Don't get your hopes up, you know how it goes when you plan on getting things done. It doesn't happen.

Feeling better

I'm feeling better. Classes are over. I don't know what I got yet but in creative writing I got a very good grade on my portfolio. HURRAY!
I'm also feeling pretty good because after my sadness caused by the book I was reading, I discovered something. The guy who wrote Eragon, his parents own the company that published it. I could have a New York Times bestseller saved on a disk but my parents aren't going to publish it for me. So at least I can believe that to feel better.
It is a little annoying that I have to spend a good portion of my time trying to get published. It's not fun but the writing is. Although I suppose I could just write and not try to get it published. I must admit that trying to get published has its good points. It's challenging, productive, humbling and occasionally rewarding.

22, sad, and no bestseller :(

Since I have a love for magical book series, particularly in the children's section, a friend recommended the Inheritance trilogy to me. It's written by Christopher Paolini. The first book is Eragon and the second, Elder, just recently came out. I have been reading it and enjoying it but I must say it has managed to make me sad. I'm not finished yet but I glimpsed at the back page to read about the author. He's 21(at least he was when Eragon came out) and he already has a New York Times Bestseller.
It's rather depressing to think about the fact that I am past 21 and do not have a best seller. I know I should not compare myself to others but it's rather hard not to sometimes.

Crazy Idea #1

Just wanted to say that I talked to Jenni about the crazy work e-mail novel idea and she likes it. I'll keep updating on it.

As for the other ideas, nothing yet. I'm slacking

CRAZY IDEAS!

Okay, so lately I have some weird ideas for writing projects. I felt like sharing them with you.

1. I write a small novel every time I e-mail my friend Jenni. Usually they are pretty interesting. Often they are about crazy people at work. I am going to start saving them to a file and create a memoirs book out of them. All the e-mails are rather interesting really. While most of it may be things you can read on my livejournal or hers, I still think they are fabulous. Maybe I'll save reply e-mails and have a co-author. Who knows?

2.I know I said that poetry wasn't my thing but I have to say I loved my sonnet. I know it was the farthest thing from the best literature ever, but it was fun. Writing it was fun and I loved peoples reaction to it. Sure they thought it was silly but I'm cool with that. So here's my crazy idea. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets (I think?). I'm going to do the same. However, they will not be about love, emotion, time, and seasons. Oh no folks I'm going to write each of my sonnets about a different comic book superhero. If I run out of hero's I'm heading to villains. Then I'll make a book out of them. That's my crazy idea. Hopefully, nobody steals it.

3. My novel is near finished probably by the end of the week. What then you ask? I need an agent. I'm going to do it folks, I'm writing query letters and I'm looking for an agent. I don't know if I have enough publishing credits or talent but I'm gonna give it a whirl.

4. I have a short-short that I would never have considered anything. I wrote it for class as my in class writing assignment. My teacher suggested putting it into a contest. I really didn't understand why but I'm giving it a shot.

I'll keep you posted on all of the above. I know it's crazy but one of them just might work!

Shaffierean Sonnet #1

As mentioned in the previous post, today in my creative writing class we tackled rhyme and meter poetry. I am not a fan of poetry and had a rough time with the free verse and prose poems we had done through out the semester. So to focus on syllables and iambic pentameter, not to mention rhyming lines in a pattern, well lets just say I was more than excited. Our professor did not have us use this type of poetry through out the year unless we wanted to, because she did not want to limit our creativity. Today however, she wanted us to give it a try.
During class, particularly when discussing the difference between prose poetry and short-shorts, it was determined that poetry tends to have less of a tale to tell or someplace it's going, but rather expresses emotions and ideas. So when we set forth today we looked into some of the most famous rhyme and meter poetry of all time, Shakespearean sonnets.
For those of you unfamiliar with them they are often about seasons, time, love, emotion. Basically everything you would expect from poetry. Our teacher said we could really do any form but sonnets would probably be easiest. Well I figured William had really set the bar high for serious sonnets so I was going to go all out crazy. The professor tried to inspire us with two words, 'strange exhilaration'. This made me think of flying, which lead to superhero's, which lead to my sonnet. You're probably thinking, "she's teasing us by writing all this and now we'll never get to see it". You're wrong! Since I have absolutely no idea who would publish this, I will publish it here, for my faithful fan(s). Don't worry for those of you who don't get it I will explain at the end. Hopefully you like it, when I read it aloud in class people actually laughed! Here it is the first of my many sonnets.

He lands in the street, dropping from the sky.
Swears to protect, always ready to fight.
He is and is not a regular guy.
Crime fighting the job, they call him Dark Knight.

The Penguin, the Joker, and Ras al Ghul,
He is strong enough to stop them. Pow! Wham!
They use their power and evil to rule,
But he is just too fast for them. Bang! Bam!

Jumping from roof to roof over Gotham,
No resting when catching the enemy.
Sending some to jail and others to Arkham,
And he will return when they are set free.

They try to get by him but no one can.
He stands over watching, he is Batman.

For reference:(Batman is often referred to as the Dark Knight. The Penguin, the Joker and Ras al Ghul are all Batman villains. In the old comics and 60's T.V. series, in fight scenes they would use sound bubbles with words such as "Bam!" when hitting and such. Gotham City is Batman's hometown. Arkham is the insane asylum where the bad guys go.)

I would also like to express how excited I am that I figured out how to make line breaks. It took me nearly two hours of frustration as my sonnet kept coming out in a paragraph, but I figured out it was a format setting.

It's been awhile.

I know it's been nearly two weeks since I posted. I'll keep my explanation short by saying AOL sucks and I'm working on getting a cable modem (for further details visit www.livejournal.com/users/ashlucsha ). With that out of the way let me tell everyone what's up.

Sadly, I did not finish my NaNoWriMo novel. I do intend to but it did not get finished in the month of November. I failed this year but all is not lost because I still have a near finished novel. FYI, since I did not get the opportunity to update the NaNoWriMo website, my final word count for the month of November was 41610.

On the much brighter side I mentioned a bit ago that I wrote a sequel to "Double Take" my superhero duo story that was published in Pandora's Gate, a Paper Dragon Ink production. I sent the sequel off to them and it got published last week. Hurray! I'm having trouble locating it on the web thanks to my current old school access. When I get it I'll post it or you can go to www.paperdragonink.com and search around.

My final project for class is due next week. It's a portfolio that must include one short story, one scene, a short-short, 2 free verse poems, a prose poem and a reflective essay. I guess we know what I'll be doing all week. When we go to turn them in we have to stay and practice rhyme and meter poetry. I'll try to contain my excitement.