Three things. Three very important writer-like things.
1. Psych is on. And it's one of my favorite crime shows ever. There's Monk for Tony Shaloub. There's Murder She Wrote for it's obvious criminals but not so obvious how they dunnits. There's CSI and NCIS for their crime scene-y-ness. And then there's Psych. For it's wacky crimes--- wacky criminals--- and wacky cast. I love it all. It's (and don't judge me, here) Monk meets a modern day Get Smart. It's not the most brilliant show you'll ever watch but it's entertaining and in one of the best ways possible.
2. I am editing. I am editing PW and helping with TLOATH and, also, I'm critiquing a book for a friend. I'm Alex Bennett's Beta reader and so it's my job to help him make his NaNo project a sparkling gem of a book. And I have to say, I'm a lucky gal. Between Aria's superheroes and Alex's leprechauns, I am in pretty great hands on the writer-reader level of happiness.
3. I've picked the project I'm going to do for my WriMo. Psych! Ha! I totally fooled you. No, see, the problem is, I HAVEN'T chosen a project and my WriMo starts in three days! I have so many guys. I have SO many ideas. Right now, it's a toss up between a book from a guy's perspective (it's a romance! A contemp. romance!), a retelling of Romeo and Juliet, and a middle grade comedy about a girl trying to get rid of a curse. But there're (and I kid you not) SEVEN other ideas that I'm fighting not to bring to the forefront of my mind. I should just... pick one. I know! But I'm agh! I'm going crazy here.
But if a writer doesn't know insanity, how does he ever hope to make the world more sane?
I just got tagged by the wonderful Sonal to complete this questionnaire. So I'm going to, and then I'm going to tag three people, and then tomorrow (or later on tonight), I'll post a more writer-like post because... I like those. Hehe!
1) Do you like to read? Mm-hmm! I love reading. Writers read, right? Right! So I'm an avid reader. I plan to read at least 10 books during my month off.
2) Who are your favourite authors? Lisi Harrison, Louise Rennison, Lemony Snicket, Trenton Lee Stewart, C.S. Lewis, Victoria Schwab, and way too many more to include here.
3) What phone do you have/do you like it? An Android something something... I, uh, don't know much about phones. I do know that it works though and that I can call people... so that's cool...
4) Favourite store? Store, store or bookstore? I'll answer both. Fave store is Target and fave bookstore is Vromans. 5) Nickelodeon or Disney Channel? Disney Channel. I'm always going to be a Disney girl and I have faith that Disney'll get better.
6) Pinkberry or Yoomoo? I've never been to Yoomoo (nor have I ever heard of it!) so I'm going to go with Pinkberry. But have you ever had Wildberry? YUM!!!
7) Harry Potter or Twilight? Blink, blink... AVADA KEDAVRA! 8) Cookies or cupcakes? Depends on the cookie.
9) Do you have any allergies? No, Ma'am.
10) Do you believe in ghosts? I believe in everything.
11) What are you wearing right now? What are you wearing right now?!
12) What was the last song you heard? "Kiss Me Slowly" -Parachute and Lady Antebellum. LOVE that song!
13) If you were an animal what would you be? Okay... are you saying I'm an animal? What kind of a questionnaire is this?!
14) Have you ever been hang gliding/paragliding? NO! I'm a big scaredy cat. But now that you mention it... Gosh, that sounds fun. Is Desi allowed to have fun? Fun does not compute @.@.
15) Favourite board game? The bored game. Okay, that's... that's cheating. Life. I like Life.
16) Favourite video game? I am physically incapable of playing video games. I have absolutely no hand-eye coordination.
17) Have you ever been on a plane? Yep and I'll be on one a little later this week. 18) Do you like sports? Do you even have to ask?
19) If you had £1000,000 what would you spend it on? Well, first I'd have to move to Europe so I could spend it at all. And THEN I'd take care of my family and save whatever's left to support me while I write books and wait for them to get sold.
20) Favourite flower? Is it weird to say I don't have one? I like lillies and orchids and cherry blossoms and roses, but only in pictures. I wouldn't like taking care of them. SO not my thing.
21) Favourite fruit? Strawberries
22) Can you ride a bike? Hehe! I should probably just clear this up: DESI DOES NOT PARTICIPATE IN OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES.
23) Do you believe in aliens? I believe in everything.
24) Favourite kind of cake? (e.g. coffee, cheesecake, etc) New York style cheesecake. Please and thank you.
25) Have you ever been bungee jumping? O.O Next question.
26) Have you ever completed a Where’s Wally book? THOSE ARE REAL?!
27) Disneyland or Universal Studios? Disneyland. I love Disney.
28) Pirates or ninjas? But they're both so awesome!!!
29) Sweet or salty popcorn? Sweet. Me loves kettle corn.
30) If you could visit any fictional place where would it be? I write about so many places I'd love to see. So one or all of those. Oh, and Narnia. Let's go; RIGHT now.
And that's it for me! I tag Arianna, Bareha, and Maya. I'll talk to you guys later about the wonderful world of writing! And before I go I'd like to thank you all for your kind words. Believe me. That rejection was the first of many. But I'm determined not to give up on PW. That rejection was perfect in the sense that it was purely about taste. Not a reflection of my work or the story... but it was about the agent and how he wasn't feeling it. That doesn't mean someone else will feel the complete opposite. So Maya, Sonal, and Aria--- I'm holding on. :)
Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I had very good reasons.
One of my flatmates needed a computer and since writing can be done (and is best done) without the distractions of the internet, I was more than happy to lend her my laptop for the day. She'll need it again so maybe there will be another late night post or an early morning brouhaha, but I wanted to post to prove how dedicated I am to this blogging every day thing, and this project I'm about to do, and this project I am SO close to finishing.
That being said, PW got it's first official rejection today. And it was so lovely, I wish I could share it with you. But for now, I want to keep it close to my heart. To remind me that agents, at their core, are human beings. That no matter how many form rejections are sent, there are sometimes the ones that are personalized, to prove those aren't the only ones out there. And to remind me to keep pushing, because one day, an agent just like the one who sent that rejection letter, is going to send me a kindly worded response that has a "yes" attached. So I'm keeping it to myself for now, but I wanted you guys to know how amazing I thought it was.
Good night you guys! I mean... good morning.
Love,
Deserae
P.S. This is Due's song of the day. Enjoy! Oh and Sonal... Thank you kindly. :)
Because I got awesome feedback from Aria and Maya on my query, I wanted to post a treat for you guys. I've been working really hard on making PW the best it can be and so I've been working with people, getting feedback, and revising like crazy. So here are some fun facts about PW and, also, a short excerpt from the first chapter.
Fact #1: I got the idea to write this story from a friend of mine named Sahara Blank. The great thing about Sahara is that she is ALWAYS fun to talk to and she's always been a hilarious gal to be around. But one day, as we were waiting for a bus, she was telling me about her day and that she got to meet a vampire. I asked her if she was serious and she told me she was. She recounted, in full, the conversation she had with Omar and I couldn't help but chime in. "Omar, the Vampire?" I asked disbelievingly. "Oh, yeah," she assured me, and we must've laughed SO hard... She told him, "Well I'm a werewolf!" and he got a little defensive. But she continued on with her joke saying, "Yeah 'cause sometimes I don't shave in the morning and I get SUPER hairy..."
He didn't think it was funny.
But on the bus ride home, I couldn't stop thinking about how serious he was about being this vampire person. I was really impressed and a little terrified and I couldn't help but thinking how weird their entire conversation was... And thus, PLANET WEIRD was born. Titles and characters tend to come first and then the rest comes in later.
Fact #2: I never wanted Omar to be the star, though. I wanted to expose him for the phony he had to be. So I kept thinking of ways to have an interesting premise, but keep his character in there. The line, "The kids are weird, too," came to me immediately and then I realized "Oh snap! This is a book about aliens on Earth!" So I had to find a hero, but she ended up being a heroine when a girl named Drew walked into my Journalism class. I couldn't believe how perfect the name was. Drew. That was my heroine! I started writing almost immediately.
Fact #3: The first line has always been, "Planet Jr. High is weird; there're no ifs, ands, or buts about it."
Fact #4: The word "weird" is in the first line of every chapter. And a message is currently hidden in my book for my readers, but I won't go into detail about that just in case things change. The message, though, hints to the characters involved in the next installment. I'm more excited about the second book than this one sometimes.
Fact #5: The plot of this story was figured out shortly after I plotted the second story. The title to this story was figured out immediately, but the second book is still unnamed. This is one of the easiest books I've ever written because I enjoy the world so much, but it was one of the hardest to get right plot-wise. But I'm grateful for it because now I know how to do three things: show when needed, tell when needed, and create plots that focus both internally AND externally.
And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Click here to see a short scene from PW Ch. 1: Earthbound.
And that's it for me today! Although PW is NOT the story I'll be writing for my WriMo, I'm going to continue to work on it and I hope to be done with it soon.
Oh, and one more treat for you guys! The song below is one that I listened to a lot while writing and editing PW. If you read the query, you'll probably understand the connection.
Wow! I asked and you guys responded. Did you see Maya's comments in Part I? I did, and I was SO thankful. And did you know Arianna emailed me immediately with feedback? Well she did and I showered her with thanks then and some more, well, now. Not to mention, there were two people who responded on Kate's post and both Krista V. and Lenna were really nice so I'm thankful to them, as well. And then there's Kate, herself, who took the time to read and critique and boy, am I grateful to her, too. I rewrote the query and... Well, I hope it's better. I want to know what you guys think. There's more words in this one but it's more descriptive and less destiny heavy ALTHOUGH I had to slip some of it in at the end because it's important. I think.
When
Drazoral steps out of a portal known as the Beyond, she is no longer the bronzed, long-legged warrior
from Andromeda. She is Drew Ophelia Vardaman, the short, pale-skinned thirteen
year old who has hopes of becoming an Earth citizen. While Drew learns to adjust
to Earth food, emotions, and all of the weird kids who make up Planet Jr. High,
she starts to understand what it means to be human. But when a parasitic shadow
starts possessing her classmates, she’s forced to confront the part of her that
is anything but normal.
Drew
presses her guardians, Wyatt and Windsor, for answers about the darkness that
haunts her dreams. But they’re not the only ones reluctant to dredge up the past.
Drew has kept the real reason for her sudden flight to Earth a secret in fear
of being sent home, but when mayhem strikes, she is asked to return to Andromeda
in order to absorb the source of her power. It is only then that she’ll be able
to use her gift without fatal consequence, and it is only then that she’ll be
able to help defeat the shadow.
But
while the part of her that is Drazoral wants to fight, the part of her that is
Drew wants to live on in peace. It is
no longer her duty to serve or to protect the universe. She realizes that
playing it safe isn’t always the right thing to do, but she sees that putting
herself in harm’s way is giving into the destiny she was pre-ordained. In
PLANET WEIRD, a 47,000 word work of middle grade science fiction, there is no
wrong or right in one’s decision to fly or fight, but Drew has to make a choice
before it’s too late to save either her classmates or herself.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope
to hear from you, soon.
So?... Any takers?... Here's a song while you read. Thanks you guys! I honestly do look forward to hearing what you think.
I've been trying to rewrite my query so I could post both my new and old ones for your side by side evaluations. But I can't. Do it. And I need to post this by midnight or else I FAIL!
So here, then, is the query that super agent Kate Testerman gave her comments on (and here is where she said... well... things that enticed me to rewrite it. Hehe!). Help me make it pretty? Or at least nod your head several times as your eyes glide over it and insert sporadic, "I see..."-s. I love ya'll. Do you know that?
PW Query, Phase I (which is actually phase gagillion and three, but we'll talk about that later):
A
near-death experience grants Drazoral a glimpse of her future, but after
hearing that her life is the key to cleansing her home planet, she runs away to
Earth, takes on a new identity, and, through trial and error, learns to blend
in. As thirteen year old Drew Vardaman, she has the chance to start over. It’s
her hope that, on Earth, she’ll be able to control her own destiny.
Although
she has a rough start, Drew soon discovers what it means to be human through
the guidance of her cryptic guardians, and her handler, Mr. Bleu. And just when
she comes to peace with who she is and what life could mean on a planet like
ours, a parasitic shadow starts possessing her classmates, forcing Drew to tap
into the powers she’s been promised but hasn’t yet learned to master.
As
the shadow grows stronger, Drew’s confidence becomes weaker. And though she
realizes that playing it safe isn’t always the right thing to do, she sees that
putting herself in harm’s way is giving into the destiny she was pre-ordained.
When the sacrificing of one life is necessary to save the lives of an entire
species, the choice to surrender seems clear. But when that one life is yours,
there’s no wrong or right in the decision to fly or fight.
PLANET
WEIRD is middle grade, supernatural fiction complete at 47,000 words. Thank
you for your time and consideration; I look forward to hearing
from you soon.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's new version and keep reading if you want to hear something cool!
"Tee-hee!"
Deserae <3
P.S. That wasn't the cool part. The COOL part is that Maya asked me a wonderful question on my last post (the blessed girl). She asked:
Is there a chance you could possibly post your WriMo on your blog?
And the answer to that is, YES! And... well... no. YES I will post some sort of something for every day that I write be that a screenshot of my Word document, a picture of me stressing out, a secret video telling ya'll something about what I intend to do or behind the scenes-y things about the characters, or a straight up excerpt for your entertainment. NO I will not post the whole thing because it's a book--- not a short story--- and that'd take up WAY too much space.
And I'm doing these special things because 1.) Maya is awesome and the fact that she asked makes me want to do SOMETHING and 2.) I am a HUGE fan of behind the scenes/ teaser-like things. Plus, I like you guys and would like your opinions so yeah. That's what we will do.
I still don't know what project I'm going to do but I have exactly a week to figure it out. I want to ask someone to pick for me but it'll take SO much time writing all of those ideas down and not getting enough of a consensus. So yeah.
Although that would be a LAME title for a book (no offense to anyone if this, indeed, is the title of a book! Oh my... maybe I should Google it?... I'm scared now. To delete this sentence or not to delete this sentence... Agh! Let's pretend that all of what was said before this parenthetical break was meant to be read HYPOTHETICALLY), I've come to learn that actions really DO speak louder than words.
It's weird because, of course, I've believed this all of my life. But I've been horrible at putting things into practice. I'm admittedly lazy, a horrible procrastinator, and I smell funny. Just kidding. Or am I? See?! I'm a freaking liar, too!
But anyway, the reason we're talking about action is because (what was it... a week ago?) I met this guy who was participating in this year's NaNo and blogged EVERY DAY to report his progress. Mind you, I've been following Alex for a while, now, on Twitter. But NaNo brought us together because he was thinking about giving up, and ya'll know me--- I couldn't (really, COULDN'T) let him do that.
Okay. So I'm using a lot of capital letters and parenthetical asides for no apparent reason. But this is how I get when I'm anxious. And I'm anxious because I've promised you guys (and myself!) that I was going to do my own WriMo this December.
I was so sad since I missed 11:11!! But you're right, we've still got one more year. Hopefully I won't miss that one too! Again, good luck on your WriMo! :) Dang...now you've made me crave ice-cream. & I'll be sure to check those blogs out. Have a great weekend! =)
♥Abby
And now observe comment number two from the last post!
Haha, I know right? I agree, last years 10/10/10 went by completly unnoticed, I was quite annoyed when, my class hardly noticed 10/10/10 and this year, everyone suddenly cared. It's just like how hardly anyone knew Steve Job's name, and when he died, the whole world decides to even start quoting him ^-^ People don't appreciate things until they're gone. Good luck with Hebrew and Greek!! Congrats, you are a Multi-lingual now ( Like me! :). Better than just plain old Bilingual, eh ;) xox, Maya
Okay, so the second post had nothing to do with the fact that I'm being held responsible for this thing, but! to Abby I just wanted to say OKAY! I will DO this! And to Maya, how right you are! "Don't it always seem to go/ that you don't know what you got 'til it's gone?" I'll post that song at the end, Love. Para ti. ;)
And for ALL of you, I am going to do my WriMo AS PROMISED. I'm going to start on December 9th and go all the way through January 7th. That's 30 DAYS to finish some work of genius. And I'll be blogging every day so that you guys can give me advice, support, encouragement, etc. to help me get this done. I'm not sure which project I'm going to do--- I have 8 or 10 projects kicking at the backdoor of my brain and all of them smell delicious, but I'm a coward and I don't want to choose! So although I don't promise to be anywhere near coherent in the next five weeks (today's post being a perfect example), I DO promise to be writing, thinking, and keeping in touch. You should do the same. Keep in touch, I mean.
Lalalalalove ya! Deserae
P.S. I think I've used this song before. Oh well! Also, you can read all about Alex's WriMo Miracle here and in the posts that precede it. I'm so proud of him for finishing and the picture that accompanies the post is really too cute (and inspirational) for words.
