Friday, December 25, 2015

Coffee & Contempt

Listen to it instead!


Ever since 3rd Grade when he told me that my beloved paper-mache dog looked like a pig covered in its own poop, I have hated Simon Owens. Yes, I know hate is a strong word, but the torment I suffered from him for the rest of elementary school and most of middle school deserves the word.
I hate him.
You might be wondering, Danielle, what’s bringing this up? Surely you’re still not this mad at this boy for a childhood folly?
Yes, I am.

Video: Russia 2015


So I went to Russia over Thanksgiving and I put together a little video of everything that I did and saw :)

Here's some things that I learned about myself:
-I forgot a lot of Russian and when I did finally manage to get what I wanted to say, I would not understand the response
-The cold never bothered my anyway
-I really know how to take advantage of a layover (Amsterdam, Minneapolis)
-I loved Russia as much as I expected to (and I'm already ready to go back!!!)

So watch my video and enjoy my travels! Hopefully you find it interesting :)

Enjoy!

Thursday, October 22, 2015

My Journey Update 2 - October 2015

For those of you who are Facebook friends with me (which is probably all of you - thanks for reading guys, you're the best), you'll probably know that I just finished revising Arthur 1 last week...

YAH!!!!!

It was probably the best and worst feeling in the world.

Thursday, September 24, 2015

America, the Beautiful

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-fiction piece, so not really a 'story.' This is also SATIRE, which means that the views expressed below are kind of the opposite of what I believe (and if you think they're really my opinions, then we clearly don't know each other). There is one exception though - the part where I talk about nachos. That's legit.

Imagine asking an astronaut what the best view from space is. They might mutter something about the billions of stars composing distant galaxies or maybe something about the vastness of space all around them. Those answers really don’t matter because in the end, they’ll always end on the same response. What’s the best view from space? The United States of America.
Undoubtedly America is the most admired and respected country in the world. While other countries may try to emulate us, they will ultimately fail. We have perfected and mastered democracy, diplomacy, arts, culture, humanitarianism, justice, peace, equality, etc. It should come as no surprise then, that when people around the world realize how their own countries have let them down, they want to immigrate to America. Except when they come, they want to bring their own culture, customs and traditions with them and they shouldn’t. Since Americans have already created a perfect dynamic, there is no room left in our society for their foreign customs and alien traditions.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

When to Scrap it and When to Fix it

In the middle of revising my Arthur novel, I came to a crossroads - should I fix what I’ve written or do I scrap it and rewrite?



This is also known as "does it suck so much that I can't salvage anything from what I've already written?" And for me, the answer was a resounding YES.

Let me define what I mean: Fixing means rewriting what I’ve already written, but making it all better. Scrapping and rewriting means throwing sections in the garbage and making something BRAND NEW.

Video: Germany 2015


I came back from Germany about a week ago and decided to put together this little video to show everything that I did and some of the places that I went.

Some things I learned about myself:
-I have very expressive eyebrows
-my hair is a wild mess in each of these videos
-I really need to work on turning the camera to show my surroundings...

So sit back, relax and watch a little bit of me having some fun in Germany :) :) :) :)

Friday, August 21, 2015

Slight Hiatus

I had every intention of posting a 'writing journey' entry this week (I even started writing one!), but then the 'oh my goodness, I'm about to leave for Germany and I'm not that ready' hysteria kicked in and well, today I board a plane and I'm not really going to care about this blog for the next ten days :)

However, I'll be back at it when I come back and I'm sure that I'll annoy everyone with my stories. See you soon!!!

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Video: Books I

MY FIRST VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


via GIPHY

So, before you watch it (if you decide to waste your time to do such a thing...), here are some things about this video.

1) I really need to stop touching my nose. For those of you that know me, you know I have this problem. It was really bad the first time I tried to make this video.

2) I really need to stop saying "um" because, um, that's, um, ridiculously annoying.

3) This was actually pretty fun to put together and I'm already planning my next video... I've unleashed something I'm not sure I can take back :)

4) Don't judge me on good or bad this is. If you have tips for future videos, I'll take 'em!

So sit back, relax, and learn a little bit about me!!


P.S. Check out the video on youtube for spellings on the books I mention :)

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Celebrity Crush

Naomi and Bee were at my apartment to have a girl’s night and watch Against the Wall when he showed up. Unfortunately I was too busy trying to get the right cheese consistency in the microwave when he knocked, so Naomi answered the door. She started saying her stereotypically lengthy ‘hello,’ but only made it through ‘hell-’ before faltering and finishing with a confused ‘oh.’ I chuckled, but didn’t move towards the door to see who it was because I cared way more about my cheese dip.
At least, until I heard the words, “Uh, hi.” Then I froze and my rotating bowl of artificial cheese was quickly forgotten. Because I knew this voice - I had loved this voice. And for once, it wasn’t coming from my TV. “Does Ellie live here?”
Yup, I definitely lived here. But how he had found me, I had no idea. Just like I had no idea how to move my feet towards the door. I just stood there, staring at the giant wooden barrier, knowing a man I used to love stood on the other side.

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Big Picture Revision

Yesterday I submitted my Personal Narrative (PN) for the Foreign Service Officer process (because I passed the test! YAH!). This involved answering 6 questions in 1300 characters - including spaces. That's not a lot of space to try and convince someone to interview you.

Photo Credit: UnSplash
Writing and editing and editing and editing these responses has only solidified my revision process. Even though these were professional and not fictional responses, I approached my answers the same way I approach my short stories and novels.

Disclaimer: this is my process and not necessary yours. Do what works for you.

I only recently discovered my process which is outlined below. I'm pretty good at creating something, but I've always been hesitant at revising. It takes A LOT of time and I didn't like the idea of spending time working on something that has already been completed when I can work on something new.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Pigrann - Chapter 3: The Emperor


<<<Chapter 2

              The Emperor hated visiting Urial. Overpopulation, insufficient waste removal, thinning atmosphere, and regulated water use made this his least favorite planet out of all the colonies. Yet somehow it remained the capital in this zone. And worse, the best laboratories had been outfitted here, long before he had ever become emperor. So he couldn’t just ignore it. He made few, but regular visits to his labs and then left as quickly as he had come.
Already, this trip broke the standard visit. Unsolicited. Unauthorized. Unofficial. Necessary. He returned this time, not as the Emperor to check on the progress of his projects, but as a scientist ready to witness the results of his experiments. After all, they had finally found her.
Why Stela had decided to hide on this awful planet he hadn’t figured out. Maybe she thought she could hide among the crowds? But the population itself created a need for an excessive amount of PROBers and it was doubtful she would have lasted long before being scanned. Maybe she decided the risk was worth the price to spread her Pigrann-hating propaganda to those who have already been saved and protected? Maybe she wanted to be captured? Unlikely. Maybe Abervon’s central power rested here? Even more unlikely.

Thursday, May 21, 2015

My Journey Update 1 - May 2015

So apparently I haven't posted anything in a while.
Photo Credit: Unsplash

Time has escaped from me, that's for sure.

So I thought I'd give a little update as to where I'm at right now in my writing/revising process, since that's what this blog is supposed to be about, am I right?

So revising. To be honest, I haven't been doing a whole lot of revising lately. I just haven't had time - which is exactly why I haven't had a blog post in a while. But that's no excuse - there's always time, I just need to find ways to be creative about it.

Thursday, April 9, 2015

Pigrann - Chapter 2: Lola

<<<Chapter 1


The confusion of old and new memories affected Lola more than her recently assigned status as a fugitive.
Trying to remember what had really happened to her versus what had been planted in her mind prohibited her ability to think clearly. Hadn’t she grown up here on Urial and put her career before any chance of a family? But she also remembered growing up on Triwal, getting married just out of school and having a son. Both felt real. Both felt right. Both tried to tell her they were her real memories.
Lola shoved them back in her brain, not letting herself think of the truth, or what could be the truth. Instead, she focused on running, because that’s the only thing she could do to stay safe. If she stopped, if the PROBers found her, both sets of memories would disappear and they would give her a brand new set which would feel just as real and she would never know the difference. So she kept moving.
Ever since Stela first awakened her from Pigrann she had been running.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Those Pesky Opening Scenes Part 2 - Engage the Reader

Photo Credit: Death to Stock Photo
In my last post, I wrote about the importance of the first few scenes to grab the reader’s attention, but once you’ve done this, you still have one giant mission to accomplish. You have to engage the reader and make them WANT to keep reading. Those first few scenes are critically important to not only grab the reader’s attention, but to keep them turning those pages!

How do you do this?

#1: Connect with the Characters

I had a HUGE (enormous, gigantic) problem with this in the first draft of Arthur 1. What I had wanted to do was introduce all my main characters as quickly as possible so that the reader knew who all the players were right away. This sounds great in theory, but in reality, it confused my readers rather than helped them.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Pigrann - Chapter 1: Stela

When Stela opened her eyes, she had forgotten about her arrest. After all, she had woken up in the most elaborately decorated and expensive room that she had ever seen.
It hardly resembled a prison cell.
Not with a diamond-encrusted four poster bed. Or ornate gold foil flower designs that covered the walls and ceiling. Or furniture that had been hand-carved (probably) by the famous Eoilin miners over two hundred years ago, long before Pigrann had been mandated across the colonies.
And Stela had worked so hard to avoid Pigrann. Eight years of hiding, running and trickery had been wasted as she awaited her fate. At any moment they would make her forget her life and force her to become whoever they wanted her to be. Before Pigrann, they called this coercion.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Those Pesky Opening Scenes: Part 1 - Hook the reader

Photo Credit: Death to the Stock Photo
So I’m not gonna lie – I haven’t been revising Arthur’s Lady as much as I should be. In fact, I’m probably only 40 pages in. If that.

Reflecting on these scenes has led me to think a lot about how vitally important they really are. After all, it’s these scenes that hook the reader.

Everyone knows that the first sentence is crucial. But that first paragraph needs to be great too. And so does that first chapter. And if the reader makes it past 35 pages, they’ll probably read the whole thing.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Shifting Perspectives

Lydia
If Lydia needed proof that she could do anything, she finally had it. She had managed to convince Danielle – her best friend and complete opposite – to go to a club. In all their twenty years of friendship, Lydia could count the number of times this had happened on one hand. On top of that, she had also managed to squeeze her into a fierce dress. Granted, it came from her own closet since Danielle owned nothing suitable to go out in. But if she could get Danielle to go out and have fun, she could certainly end the night with Cooper at her side.
And she needed Danielle to connect her to Cooper. Danielle knew him, she had a class with him, and in some strange twist that Lydia had not seen coming, Danielle had actually become friends with him.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

It's cold and I have a cold

A la Buzzfeed
Due to the holiday weekend and the fact that I am fighting off a cold (I have Garth Brooks tickets this weekend. I can not be sick.), I will not be posting a story this week.

However, I can tell you that next week's story is going to be looking at one scene from four different characters' Point of View. It's like I planned that or something :)

So stay warm and enjoy your weekend! I know I will!!!

Friday, February 13, 2015

Struggling with Point of View

I recently discovered that I really suck at Point of View.

For Arthur's Lady 1 & 2, I chose to write my POV in 3rd person limited. In 3rd person limited, the narrator can only delve into one character's thoughts and feelings at a time. Now some author's write a story following ONLY one character. My stories tend to have multiple POVs when I write in 3rd person.

It's just so much fun to read multiple minds.

When I finished Arthur's Lady : The Lady of the Lake, (and then revised it briefly so the plot made a little more sense), I handed it to someone to read. The most important thing I learned when they handed it back to me was one thing. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY needed to fix how I handled my points of view.

Apparently, there are rules?

Thursday, February 5, 2015

A Journey Between Friends

I met Mason at the age of thirteen when he told me that I had a red circle on my butt. My first period. Memories you can never forget. And I’ve tried.
Lucky for me, periods did not horrify Mason. I actually believe that thirteen year old Mason considered my ‘pointless’ red stain to be cool rather than disgusting. Uh, boys?
From that moment on, we stuck with each other all throughout high school. He ensured that I passed all my classes which proved to be a more difficult challenge for Mason than he had anticipated. In return, I helped him attempt to understand the female mind. Mission impossible, right? Well, I tried.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Not So Genius First Draft

Have you ever written something and in the midst of it, you were thinking, "This is the most amazing story anyone has ever written! They better start writing those checks!!"

Yeah, me too.

And then you look back at it some time later - maybe a day, a week, a month, a year later - and you realize, "This is the worst thing I've ever written in my life."

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Videos coming soon!

Blog has just started and eventually there will be a video. Stay tuned

Stories coming soon!

Blog has just started, but after a blog post, a story will follow!! Stay tuned :)

Post coming soon!

Blog had just started, but don't worry, a post here is the first thing to come. Stay tuned!