The Story of How My Teacup Betrayed Me

When the tragedy occured, I saw all my life's work flash before my eyes. Thankfuly my computer survived and I can continue to write from my bedroom. Of course, I'll have to find a new writing buddy because my teacup and I are no longer on speaking terms.

Sims Shmims

Last night I went to a women's group meeting at my church--it was our first get-together. After we ate some goodies (You know what's super tasty? Adding a cucumber slice to your cheese and cracker sandwich. It was almost as divine as the chocolate cake.) we went around and introduced ourselves by saying our name and what it is we do.

As I listened to the other women talk about their jobs and their families, I knew I should have felt hesitation about telling them I'm writing a book. Most people think I'm stupid for doing only that and not working or going to school in the meantime. But...I wasn't nervous. I knew I could be honest and open with this group of women. I knew they would get it or at least not judge me for it.

When it was my turn, I told them, with a smile, that I'm writing a book and currently working on the third revision. It's something God has me doing and something I can be proud of. (So often in the past I've said it with...I guess what I would describe as shame coming through my voice.) But I'm not ashamed. I'm excited.

They reacted so well--asked me what it was about and some of them told me it sounded like a best seller. (That one made me blush.) One lady told me God had put the story in my spirit, and yeah--He has. Adira's story is one I know God will use. I see the need for this story so often. And God has placed many clues in my life that this is the very story I'm meant to tell at this time.

Anyway. The past couple days have been a little stressful for whatever reason, and I feel a little bit like taking a mental health day and just playing Sims 3. Actually, saying "a little bit" is a huge understatement. That's all I can think about.

I almost closed the novel and turned on the 360, but then all those supporting, beautiful women popped into my mind and gave me the drive to resist that temptress of a game (And it really is--I get sucked in for hours.) and keep working hard on the book. If any of the said women are reading this--thank you. Your enthusiasm means a lot.
Because of you, today I write.     

This Title Sucks Butt

A quick update for you:

Adira is getting so much better! I've put many hours into shaping her each day since I realized she's not who I want her to be. 

Today I watched Disturbia (one of my favorites) and studied Cale's character to see what I love about him, since I wasn't sure. He's not a super complex guy, but...I like him. So, I got a lot from that and will be looking at some of my other favorite movies the same way. Why movies and not books? Movies are quicker and I don't get caught up in them as easily.


Now onto new business:

I've never liked the title Picture Perfect. I picked it the night before my manuscript was due simply because when I emailed my prof, completely freaking out about having no clue as to what I wanted for a title, she told me it didn't matter--I just needed a title.

I told myself I would change it later, and I just never have. According to this article I just read, it doesn't matter that much anyway because the publishers will probably change it. They know what sells.

I still haven't come up with a title I like (though to be honest I haven't put much thought into it yet). What I have been doing in the past ten minutes is playing with this. If you didn't follow the link for whatever reason, it's a random title generator. For funsies, here are some titles that made me laugh and that I will not use:

...

The Cracked Birth

The Lover's Pleasure (We all know what kind of book cover that belongs to!)

Splintered Sex (lolwut)

Hustler in the Truth
Body in the Someone

The Forgotten Sex (I don't know why I find all the sex titles funny...)

Wet Time (Oh, dear.)

...Ok, I'll stop now. I should go be productive or something. But, hey, at least I found out what I don't want to use for my book! That's partially productive, right?

What's Her Name

I want Adira to stick with people. I want her to move the people who read about her. I want her to be this great girl who goes from victem to survivor heroine. I want people to want to be like her.

What I don't want is for someone to tell her friend about this this book and have it go something like, "Oh, yeah, the story was about this girl...what's her name? Well, I don't really remember her, but her friend was cool, and that guy was cute..."

I still feel like Adira is not quite right. Working on this third revision has been terribly difficult, and over the last few days I realized it's because Adira is a half-formed person that I don't know well enough to write a story about. I know her story--where she starts and where she has to finish, but Adira doesn't possess all the qualities to make her awesome and three-demensional along the way. If her personality had a face, I'm sure it would look like this:

Which is, you know...Picasso. I'm not an artist and I don't spend much time analysing paintings, but this chick looks kind of weepy and about to fall apart into itty bitty pieces. And frankly, she's not easy on the eyes.

I'm revamping Adira and making her into who she should be--a strong, leading young woman/heroine without a cape/someone I hope you'll all love.   

Betas Wanted!

Today I printed out Picture Perfect as it is--260 pages of hard work--and I am going through it as if I'm reading someone else's book. I have a bright green pen in hand, and I'm marking it up. It's so exciting, and I feel like I'm in the final stretch, where things get really gnarly, but I can see the light at the end.  And the light looks breathtaking!

A lot of people hate on what I'm doing. One of the perks about actually doing this is that I'm daily proving them wrong. They'll see that when all this work come to fruition. (My goal is not to prove them wrong, it'll just be...a little nice? I hope that doesn't sound bad.)

Of course, my goals are to touch people with a story that needs to be told, and eventually make a living of doing what I love. God has given me this dream, and I am dreaming big! I can't tell you how excited I am right now. And I can't tell you what those dreams are, exactly, because I would blush--that's how big and crazy they are. (I know you wouldn't see me actually blush, but still...)

Coming up!

After I finish this revision, and am going to need beta readers.
beta reader: (bay-ta read-er) n: a completely awesome person who will read my manuscript and give me honest suggestions and opinions about the storyline, characters, grammar, etc.


My personal criteria for beta readers:

• Honesty. You can tell me if something is boring or cliché  or doesn't make sense--I promise I won't cry. (Though you can be honest in a nice way...)
• You can't show it to anyone. NOT A SOUL!! So, you have to be trustworthy and give me your word you won't let it be stolen. Plus, I have ways to prove it was mine first, and you will be in huge trouble.
• You can't take it and not get back to me for a year. I have to move on with it, so reading it in a timely fashion is much apprecaited. What does timely mean? ...How about a month? Sound good? It's not a long or complicated book.
• You have to like young adult fiction. My target audience: females age 12-20 or so. You can be older--I am! You just have to enjoy books for that age group. And I guess you can be a guy, but you have to like this sort of thing.  
• You have to like reading and/or writing because how else will you know whether or not it's any good?

If you need a refresher on what this novel is about, here is a link to my very first post, which describes the book.

I am going to need multiple betas because the more feedback I get, the better. So let me know if you're interested!