This year I'm participating in Ponyfest12! Because I maaaaay love My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And I maaaaaaay love making ponies.
So add in a contest where you make ponies of the characters in your novel for a chance to win a custom pony? Yeah, I'm going to be there.
So these are some ponies from my YA fantasy: Break Free.
My one sentence description: Seventeen year old Kiel Reaux is enslaved and must lead a priestess through a murderous magical jungle in order to earn his freedom.
Yay! So here are the characters:
This is the Wild pony. The Wild is a jungle full of untamed magic. It's crazy and horrible and people die terribly when they venture in. So as you can see my pony is wild and crazy and slightly malevolent. He's a unicorn because the jungle is magical and his cutie mark is a river because there's a magical river that runs through the Wild.
This is my Kiel pony. Kiel is a Wilder, which means he was a child born too close to the untamed magic of the Wild. Because of that, he has wild magic in his blood, which turns his eyes and hair gold. His cutie mark is a shackle, because in the novel he's a slave (hence the slave collar). He wears a bracelet of spell stones, each one with a different magical spell.
This is Kiel's love interest, Izzy. She crafts magic spell-stones, so she's a unicorn. Her cutie mark is a powerful spell stone that she's carrying through the Wild
This is my Dayre pony. Dayre is an earth pony because he's Izzy's bodyguard. His cutie mark is a spear because he's a warrior and wears a warrior spell-stone that makes him stronger and faster in battle and has embedded spell stones in his arm that lets him fire electricity at his enemies.
Yay! So there you have it! Visit the above link to see the other entries.
Wow! That week went crazy fast! It must be because I know Mom doesn't have to go to work next week and instead can spend the whole week playing and cuddling and walking moi!
Because that's how awesome I am!
Pure, Uncut Awesome
Anyway, let's get this weekend started with some fun!
Woo hoo! Today's my stop on the awesome Justine Dell's blog tour for her book Recaptured Dreams!!
sooo pretty!
Also very pretty!
Blurb:
Ten years, the Atlantic Ocean, and several rungs in society have kept Xavier Cain from having Sophia Montel. Now twenty-seven, he’s spent his entire adult life building a fashion empire that could finally prove his worth to her family. When fate reunites him with Sophia at London’s premiere fashion show, one problem lodges in Xavier’s path: Sophia doesn’t remember him.
The only obstacle that has kept Sophia from Xavier is a horrific car crash that erased her memory at seventeen. She’s spent the last ten years fighting to reclaim a sliver of her past that her mother refuses to help her remember. When Sophia meets Xavier at the London show, however, all her fantasies come to life in one night of passion. Discovering he is the missing link, she is determined to find all the pieces to their love story and her memory.
Xavier wants forever. Sophia wants her memory. If they take this chance, they’ll have to start over. How far are they willing to go get what they want? And when the past catches up to them, can they handle the truths it has hidden?
Today, I have an interview with the awesome Justine. So sit back and enjoy!
·As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
A vet. I love animals, but when I discovered I had to deal with the bad stuff as well as the good, I decided that wasn’t a good career path. That and the time I cried when I stepped on a worm. Yes, I’m that sensitive when it comes to animals.
·Are you’re a pantser or plotter?
Panster! If I had to plot, I would die. Seriously. I probably wouldn’t write. Writing for me is like escaping. I just...fly. And pansting is flying. I go where the characters take me.
·How long did it take you to write Recaptured Dreams?
30 days. Crazy, right? It’s been majorly tweaked since then, but I had the first draft down in one month.
·Where do you get your idea for Recaptured Dreams?
A good friend and co-worker were tossing around ideas for a contest one day and it came up. She actually came up with the brooding, yet sensitive and swoon-worthy Xavier Cain.
·What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
I work a regular job (40 hours per week) and write whenever I get time. I used to have set times (in the evening and on Saturdays) but now I’m kind of all over the place. As the Offspring has aged, she keeps me busier and busier!
·What would you say is an interesting writing quirk of yours?
Imust write in total silence. Without interruptions. If I get interrupted, I grow horns. I need to be in the zone. J
·Is there any particular author or book that influenced you in any way either growing up or as an adult?
No. I actually didn’t started reading for fun until after I wrote my first book. I know, I know, that’s just crazy! Which is way that first book was such a mess and won’t ever see the light of day.
·Can you tell us about your challenges in getting your first book published?
Oh, whoa is me. I’ve spent a great deal of time in the slush pile and I think I have enough rejections to fill up my entire bathroom. The main challenge of getting published is getting all those “No’s” and still having the drive to keep going. Had it not been for wonderful crit partners who pushed me to the brink of my sanity and made me see that this was something I love and something I shouldn’t give up on, I probably wouldn’t be answering these questions today.
·If you had to go back and do it all over, is there any aspect of your novel or getting it published that you would change?
Probably not. Even with all the highs and lows, I am who I am because of what I’ve been through, the things I’ve learned, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. Getting published isn’t the end of the journey, it’s only another part of the beginning.
·What was your favorite chapter (or part) to write and why?
The very beginning. And the very end. For me, beginnings just kind of land in my head and I have to get them down. The ideas come from a random conversations or seeing certain things and then BAMN! The first few paragraphs write themselves in my head. That is a cool moment for me. Because as I write them, the rest of the story is weaving itself into my head, pulling me along into a wonderful tale. And the ending? Well all endings are beautiful to me. It’s that moment when you can say, “I did it.”
·How did you come up with the title?
The basis of the story revolves around the hero recapturing his dream, so it just worked.
·What project are you working on now?
Ah! A novel called Until Next Time. I’m getting ready to write those last wonderful chapters. It’s a contemporary romance about a woman, Piper, who runs a Funeral Home and she’s terrified of death. And the hero, Quinn, sees life in death. An interesting pair, those two. J
·Are there certain characters you would like to go back to, or is there a theme or idea you’d love to work with?
OMGoodness, yes. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE writing stories about people reconnecting. Past loves and all that. There’s just something so magical about two people who are perfect for each other but don’t see it until they are older, more mature, and have more to lose.
·What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
What has been the best compliment? Hahaha. One, I’m laughing so hard because my first crit partner and super best writer friend, Sarah Fine, is both my biggest critic and my biggest cheerleader. She pushes like no man’s business and makes me really thinks about the characters, the ideas, the prose. She is the reason I am who I am right now and I owe everything to her.
·Do you have any suggestions for all the aspiring writers out there?
Never give up. And read what you want to write. You’ll only get better with time, and the more you know about your genre, the better off you’ll be.
·Is there anything that you would like to say to your readers and soon-to-be fans?
THANK YOU! J This has been an amazing journey and I’m still learning, but I hope you all love Recaptured Dreams as much as I do!
Woo hoo! Interview! Want to know more about Recaptured Dreams? Well, here's the trailer!
Oooh, I LURVE that song!
And super exciting news! One lucky commenter will win an eBook of Recaptured Dreams! Worried that you won't win? Double your chances by entering this Goodreads giveaway for a chance at one of two copies!
Also, 2 lucky commenters will win a Recaptured Dreams boomark!
AND! Just when you think there couldn't be anything more, Justine is having a HUGE giveaway on her blog for the whole month, so hurry over and check it out for a chance to win even more! (see linkage below for her bloggy)
So I'm revising Break Free. Scratch that. I've been revising Break Free for maybe 2 months? 3? I dunno, I'm a terrible estimator of time and I'm waaaaay too lazy to go look.
Okay I lied. I'm not that lazy. Okay wait. Yes I am, I'm just more curious than lazy. It's been just a little over 2 months say my records. Granted there were a few weeks in there where the day job was so so busy that there was no writing done at all. And also a week of vacay where the writing stuff was not done. But still, you get the idea.
Anyhoo, where I'm going with is, next week I have another week of vacay. Staycay actually. And by vacay I mean, not working at the dayjob. Instead twin and I will be working around the house. Preparing the veggie garden for winter, yard work, house repairs etc. So, you know, better than work, but still actually doing work.
True story: this is not our garden
I'm really, really close to finishing these rounds of revisions. And then I can send the MS to a few beta readers and hope they give me the sign off to send that baby back into the world. If not, it will be more revisions. It's not like I'm really in a hurry, but I kind of am in a bit of a timing crunch to get it back out as soon as possible for varying reasons that I won't get into because that's a whole post on it's own.
So for right now, my goal is to try and revise the shit out of the MS this week in the hopes that I can send it to beta readers and not have to worry about it on my staycay. And by worry about it, I mean, not have to worry about how I'm not revising because I'm tilling the garden or tevs.
So anyway, wish me luck!
How about you? Are you revising? Or writing? Or brainstorming? I want deets!
Dammit. I shouldn't have written that. Now I'm going to have the entire monologue and the theme song to the beginning of Star Trek in my head.
So today we're hightailing it back out to space. Because, folks, space has some weird ass stuff out there. Weeeeiiiird stuff we're talking about.
BUT! Today, we're going to stick close to home and talk about our favorite celestial neighbor, Mars!
Awww! So cute!
OT for a second. Remember this movie?
Jim Carey, Damon Wayans and Jeff Goldblum
I don't really have anything to say about it. Just all this talk about Mars made me think of Earth Girls are Easy and then I'm both delighted and flummoxed that something like this happened.
Anyway. Let's get our asses back to Mars. (Super Bonus Nerd Points if you can identify the source of that slightly bastardized quote!) Scientists have discovered large quantities of methane in Mars's atmosphere. Why is this weird, you ask? Because the ultraviolet in sunlight does a really good job of breaking down methane. So, technically, Mars shouldn't have any methane.
Which means, that something on Mars is producing the methane.
Geological events can sometimes produce methane, but there's no evidence of any happening on Mars recently.
So you know what else produces methane? Life.
There's also a possibility that maybe some unknown geological event produced the methane, but in order for that to happen it would require liquid water flows and lava.
So even if life didn't cause the methane, it would mean that Mars has liquid water. Or maybe both!!
Yeah. Think about that for a bit.
We love you Mars!
(Fun fact: I typed "methane" wrong almost every time I wrote it in this post. I kept missing the last "e". Also I had to type it 4 times in this fun fact before I finally got it right. Skilz: I haz them.)
Man I've been doing a lot of contests lately. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. Especially since I've taken a short hiatus on querying while I finish up another round of revisions.
But they just seem so fun and everyone's involved and I always like to be involved in things when it seems like everyone else is and having fun. I can't help it. I like being part of the group.
I figured my chances for Pitch Madness were slim, since I'm not great at writing pitches. I'm not bad, I'm just no comparison to those peeps who are ah-mazing at it. So I didn't make it to the next round in that one, which was expected.
But both GUTGAA and Come and Get It rely on the query and first 250 words. And I'm much better at query writing. I made it to the second round of CAGI (I was #72) and our entries will be posted starting today for browsing agents. So that's exciting! Of course, there's always a chance I won't get any requests and I'm okay with that.
GUTGAA round 2 winners won't be announced until later this week, I think. I feel like I have a good chance, but again, it all depends on the judges personal tastes and who else you're up against. Either way, it's been fun and I'm glad I participated.
What about you? Have you been participating in any contests?
Sometimes I worry that I'll run out of weird stuff to gab about. Then I'm all like "dumbass. The world is frickin crazy and you have a collection of books just on weird stuff, so you're fine"
Today we're talking about the Dyatlov Pass Incident. This is one of those weird things that probably does have a logical explanation but that we'll never know for sure. And also, there are just some weird things about it.
So, on February 2nd, 1959 Nine ski-hikers decided to tackle Kholat Syakhl ("Mountain of the Dead". And I'm dead serious about that translation. What an awesome coincidence!) in Russia. This trek was considered category III (the most difficult) but all were very experienced ski-hikers. This was an area where avalanches are rare.
On February 26th, the first of their bodies were found (dead bodies on the Mountain of the Dead? Get outta here!).
They also discovered their campground.
So, so far, not really weird. Let's look at the deets...
Their tent was shredded, from the inside out, and the rescuers followed the footprints in the snow to locate some of the bodies.
The skiers were scattered around the campground, either lightly dressed or wearing nothing but their underwear. (Remember. February. In Russia. On a mountain). 3 of the hikers had crushed ribs and fractured skulls but no visible signs of struggle or defense marks. The breaks were similar to a bad car accident and could have been fatal, but again, no visible marks or external wounds.
The bodies may have had some sort of strange, orange tan.
Also, one of the bodies was missing her tongue.
Supposedly trace levels of radiation were found on their bodies, too, but that can't be confirmed because this was cold war era USSR and tons of records were destroyed just for the hell of it.
The official story is that the hikers were killed by (and I quote) "Unknown compelling force." The pass was actually renamed Dyatlov after the leader of the group.
There are some other deets, such as possible strange lights seen by other hikers, and possible UFOs seen by some of the rescuers, but I didn't include any of that because much of it came about later, after some of the censorship controls were relaxed with the end of the USSR. It doesn't mean they're false or fabricated, I just tried to stick with the facts that were common knowledge at the time.
So, there you have it. A group of skiers killed in a mountain, not so unusual. The state of their bodies and their campground, definitely weird.
Thoughts?
(If you want more info, you can check out this link. It has a lot of detailed description of the events leading up to and after the bodies were found. Two warnings, it devolves into conspiracy theory, and, more importantly, there are photos of the bodies. So don't visit if you don't like creepy body photos)
Twin and I hit up the MN Renfest this last weekend (Bro is hunting moose in Alaska with our dad and our extended family that lives in Alaska.) (For those of you asking "What is MN Renfest?" I've blogged about it in detail here, here, here, here and here and quite a few more times under the "renfest" tag,) Of course, we have season passes and hit it up every weekend, but this weekend we did some shopping.
I'm always on the lookout for another hat to add to my steampunk hat collection and finally settled on which one I wanted. I had to get the hatband at another store but so far, I luuurve my new hat. I may have to change my user pic in the near future to show it off.
La la la! I lurve you new steampunk hat!
The hat and the hatband should've been enough. But then twin was all like "You need to see this". And I walked over to see what she was looking at and she was right. I DID need to see it. And not leave the shop without it.
A steampunk garter with a pistol!
Here's another shot so you can see the little test tubes on the other side of the strap.
It was not easy taking these pics by myself
It's extra nice because they punched enough holes in the leather strap so that you can fit it on your calf, even over boots if you want.
Oh Renfest. Once again the siren song of your steampunkery snares me in your money-lessening grasp.
Can you believe how fast this week went? It's already Friday! Which means tomorrow it's the weekend! I know! It's crazy!
Of course, I'm just a dog, and really have very little concept of the passage of time. So am I surprised that the weekend has snuck up on us again? Yes. Yes I am.
