"You do drink don't you?" "Of course. I just said I was a writer."

So. I saw Eclipse on Wednesday. Better than the 1st and 2nd, but I still hate the whole series. Bella and Edward were as annoying as ever with their dialogue. I truly realized how annoying Edward is when he wasn't present during most of New Moon. Absence can not only make the heart grow fonder, it can make you realize how annoying a person is.

I appreciated the hot werewolves and--finally--the fighting. And, like Myra McEntire said in one her youtube videos, the Cullens actually spoke in this movie!

Erm, I don't think I've got anything else to add. Except maybe that considering how bad Breaking Dawn was, Eclipse might be the best movie out of the 4/5 (because of that whole two part thing).

Moving on to more interesting things...

Writing

I was behind on my goal for a long time and finally, I've almost caught up. Just 490 words left. Here's what the word count for the past few days looks like:

Monday 70
Tuesday 444
Wednesday 434
Thursday 920
Friday 828
Saturday 142

Now I'm not done for today--I'd like to at least reach 250 words. It'd be a pity to fail now after the success I've had since Tuesday.

Total word count for now: 35161.

Chapter 18: 1808.

Fact: Chapter 17, which is only 1751 words, took me 15 days to write.

1408

I started watching 1408, but stopped because it is too freaky to watch at night. And what made me want to watch the movie? The words "writer" and "John Cusack" on the back of the DVD cover. I'd seen John Cusack in "Stand By Me", but didn't find him hot. I saw him in 2012 and melted. Yummy.

As my sister knows, I have a thing for blondes (Spike from Buffy and a thousand others) but if there's an actor or character in a book I like, and he's not blonde, then he's got dark hair. Like Michael Madsen in "Reservoir Dogs." *sigh* Or Rob Lowe. And how could I forget Kiefer Sutherland in "The Lost Boys" and "Stand By Me."

That's the annoying thing about watching movies from the eighties--all those hot guys are in their forties or fifties now.

Predator

So. My dad said it was a classic. Really good. Somewhere else I read it's a cult movie.

Honestly, I was disappointed. Slow, not that much happens really. Now I don't hate all slow movies. I mean Alien was REALLY slow, but I loved it. But stuff happened.

Writing revelation at 1 in the morning (evil lounge)

So. It turns out that all this time when I've been blaming the hot weather for my lack of writing, I was wrong. Partially. Yes, the hot weather makes it more difficult to write. I mean for one thing you're sweating. You feel more tired. The only thing going through your mind is "Kill me" or "I'm melting" or "I'll do anything for it to be 28 degrees (Celsius)" and you can't write in those conditions.

BUT the thing that really stopped me?

I was living in the lounge, sleeping in the lounge, eating in the lounge. See a pattern emerging?

I realized just how important it is for me to write sitting at my desk, with the door closed and music playing. Any other way will NOT work. Yanno, except for last night, when I wrote 444 words while in the lounge. But that was different.

Conclusion: Who cares if your sister wants you in the lounge watching TV with her, or your friends who haven't seen you in 4 weeks would really like to spend some time with you, or people are worried you've died—if writing in your bedroom like a hermit is the only way for you to write productively, do it.

PS: For any Americans, lounge=living room.

"Remember that face I showed you, Scully? I'm makin' it again!"

Movies I've seen in the past few days:

• Banlieue 13: Loved it.
  
• Banlieue 13: Ultimatum: Loved it.
  
• Rain Man: Loved it.
  
• The X Files: Meh. Had never seen an episode, didn't know what to expect.
  
• Mercury Rising: Okay.
  

I'd expand and say what I think, but I am FINALLY getting some writing done.

Review of "Sisters Red" by Jackson Pearce

So here's the book trailer for it:

And a summary:

Scarlett March lives to hunt the Fenris-- the werewolves that took her eye when she was defending her sister Rosie from a brutal attack. Armed with a razor-sharp hatchet and blood-red cloak, Scarlett is an expert at luring and slaying the wolves. She's determined to protect other young girls from a grisly death, and her raging heart will not rest until every single wolf is dead.

Rosie March once felt her bond with her sister was unbreakable. Owing Scarlett her life, Rosie hunts fiercely alongside her. Now Rosie dreams of a life beyond the wolves and finds herself drawn to Silas, a young woodsman who is deadly with an ax-- but loving him means betraying her sister and has the potential to destroy all they've worked for.

The Review (my kind of review anyway)

I read the prologue online and I, probably, stomped my foot when I realized that was it. I needed to read more NOW.

So I asked my mom to order it, she did, it arrived. I hugged it. BUT I did not read it immediately. Why? I'm an idiot. Sure, I was reading FOUR other books, but that should not have stopped me for as long as it did. I finally gave in and more or less turned into a HERMIT.

I can tell you that for the two or three days it took me to read it, my sister was HIGHLY annoyed with me. I barked and growled and yelled at her when she interrupted me. "I'm reading, leave me alone."

I was also telling her "Eloïse, you HAVE to read this book! It's about sisters who kill wolves! They kick ass; you have to read it." She doesn't like reading, but one day she shall read Sisters Red.

Characters:

• Scarlett March: 18, missing her right eye, kick-ass, awesome, and kills Fenris (some people, like me, say "I'd kill for her/him/my sister/my brother"; Scarlett literally kills for her sister).
• Rosie March: 16, not as passionate about hunting as her sister, but she still kicks ass.
• Silas Reynolds: 21, comes from a family where people build their own bedrooms. Seriously.

What I think of the writing: it's beautiful and amazing and it's what made me fall in love with the book just by reading the prologue.

Fast pacing, lots of action, the twist was surprising and when it was revealed I couldn't stop squealing/squeaking/screaming for 15 minutes. BUT Jackson Pearce layered in hints before it's revealed. When it was, I went "So THAT's why that was mentioned and that happened..."

The book cover is, as you can see at the beginning of this post, gorgeous. And I love the title: Sisters Red. Like "Brothers Grimm"; it's brilliant.

Little bit of a spoiler: I loved that Rosie pulled it together when she was captured and rescued herself.

I give it 5/5. Now go buy and read it if you like stories about wolves and teenage girls killing them.

About the author

The biography she wrote taken from her website:

Jackson Pearce is twenty-five years old and currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with a slightly cross-eyed cat and a lot of secondhand furniture. She recently graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and a minor in Philosophy. She auditioned for the circus once, but didn't make it; other jobs she’s had include obituaries writer, biker bar waitress, and receptionist. In addition, Jackson coaches both colorguard and winterguard at a local high school.

Jackson began writing when she got angry that the school librarian couldn’t tell her of a book that contained a smart girl, horses, baby animals, and magic. Her solution was to write the book herself when she was twelve. Her parents thought it was cute at first, but have grown steadily more concerned for her ever since.

Jackson Pearce: on twitter, her website, her youtube channel, and her livestream account.

What I think about her: Jackson is really nice and I love that she does a live video every Tuesday where people can ask her questions and just talk to her. When I said in the chat that I was up at 5 to 3 in the morning for her, and somebody in England said it was 5 to 2 for them, she said she'd try to change the time of the live video so we wouldn't have to stay up so late.

(Man this is a long post...)

"How could anyone love a pebble in their shoe?"

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead: Started the 22nd of June, finished the next day at 3 am. (Which is really the 24th of June, but to me a day is over when I go to bed, so let's say it was the 23rd when I finished it.)

When do I start? I guess with the thing that really stuck out for me. (Search for the words "END SPOILER" to read the rest of the post.)

*****

**

SPOILER

**

*****

When Richelle Mead gave us hope that Dimitri could be saved, could become a dhampir again, she ran the risk of it going really wrong. Rose succeeding to save him could have been cheesy, or we could have complained "Ugh, it was too easy. Just like that she got him back" and so on.

But she pulled it off. Rose saved Dimitri and instead of going "Seriously? That's it?" I went "Yes! She deserved it after all the trouble she went through."

Also, I did NOT expect that twist about Rose being a suspect...

And Adrian! Poor Adrian... It looks like Rose will get back with Dimitri.

*****

**

END SPOILER

**

*****

Overall, Spirit Bound is an amazing book. 5/5

Timeline: Gerard Butler. *sigh* I saw on the Channel 4 website that it was passing on TV and when I saw he was in it, I said "Okay, we're watching this." Also: time travel. Overall: not bad.

One thing that really annoyed me: How hard is it to get French actors to play French characters? Seriously. The one playing Lady Claire sounded terrible when she spoke French. Ugh.

Writing fail--again

As the title in bold suggests, I haven't been writing much lately.

21st Monday 16
22nd Tuesday 79
23rd Wednesday 0
24th Thursday 266
25th Friday 0
26th Saturday 32
27th Sunday 3612
8th Monday 128
29th Tuesday 0
30th Wednesday 0
1st Thursday [Nothing yet]

See? I've got to write 1206 words to catch up.

A Dry White Season: As you know if you've been reading this blog, I had to read the book for school, and I actually liked it. Although the movie leaves out the quirkiness of Professor Bruwer and the relationship between Melanie and Benjamin, it's really good. During one scene near the beginning, when the police is chasing some school kids who were doing a peaceful protest, I almost cried. Usually, during a movie or book, I cry if a character is crying.

But during that scene there was no shot or closeup of a kid crying, yet the emotion in it...

On top of that, it's set in South Africa, where my mom grew up. The film is set in 1976, when my mom was 12. Despite growing up in a place where white people lived better lives than black people, she isn't racist.

Like my dad says, if the parents aren't racist and don't tell their kids that they shouldn't be friends with someone because their skin color is different, than the kids won't be racist either.

Snakes on a Plane: My sister had already seen it, but she watched it with me anyway.

I'd heard about this movie, and it was quite different from what I expected. Gorier.

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli: So I heard about this book a couple of months ago, and then a friend of mine was reading it, so I finally asked my mom to order it off Amazon and it arrived weeks ago. Anyway, despite not having finished 4 other books, I decided to read it. It was a very quick read and definitely worth it. I'll be buying the sequel "Love, Stargirl."

Ever After: I saw it last night with my sister and I LOVED it. Andy Tennant's (the director) Cinderella, called Danielle de Barbarac, is funny and very different from the Disney Cinderella, the only other one I've seen. If you like fairy tales, watch this movie NOW. The quote I used for the title of this post comes from "Ever After."

How I write

Hannah Moskowitz does fast-drafting. This means she writes her novels in 5 to 8 days, most of the time. (More about that on her blog: http://hannahmosk.blogspot.com/ which you HAVE to read. I mean she's 19, she loves Fight Club and Rent and her novel BREAK, about a 17-year-old determined to break every bone in his body, came out last year. And did I mention she's awesome?)

How I write

Now I've only finished one novel in my life, so I don't know if how I wrote that one will be how I write the one I'm writing. Man that's a confusing sentence.

How about a list of all the novels I've started and finished? Most of which I didn't finish, but whatever.

1. SAME DIFFERENCES: Crap. I think I had an outline, but I never finished it. 9540 words before I gave up.
2. SURRENDERING: I had an outline, more or less, and I haven't the faintest idea how long it took me to write. That's how long ago it was. Also: it sucked. It was almost 12 000 words. COMPLETE
3. LIVING: Sequel to SURRENDERING. Crap. Utter crap. 2276 words.
4. SELENE YOUNGBLOOD: Not crap, apart from the first chapter. I'm hoping to rewrite it someday and finish it. Approx 10 000 words.
5. UNWANTED VAMPIRISM: *shudders* Worse than crap: shit. 4282 words.
6. A BLANKET UNWOVEN: Crap, but I know learned something. 31 333 words. COMPLETE
7. CATCHING RODRIGO: Not crap. 3971 words.
8. NOTHING'S CHANGED: Kinda crap. 7023 words.
9. THE VEILED MOON: Not really crap. 4795 words.
10. THE HEALING PROCESS: Had potential. 596 words.
11. ZOE: Don't even remember it. 792 words.
12. HAYLEY: Loved the main character. 663 words.
13. ALICE WHITLEY: Why on earth did I even write that? 510 words.
14. EMMELINE: Ugh. 185 words before I gave up.
15. HER SMILE: Had potential, liked the idea, lacked plot. 8365 words.
16. KENNA'S CHOICE: No outline. And according to my critique partner, not so crappy. 50 956 when I finished it. COMPLETE
17. PLAYING WITH DARTS: No outline, at first. 31 345 words.

IDEAS: I get a sentence--not an image, or a character, or a plot or a "what if..." type of question--and start writing immediately. No outlining beforehand, or figuring out who the main character is. I just write.

The best three examples for this are Selene Youngblood, Kenna's Choice and Playing with Darts:

1. "I dared look out from behind the tree that hid me." Will change when I have time to edit Selene Youngblood. (Title will have to change too.)
2. "I'd be lying if I said I felt safe in his presence." The new and improved first sentence is "Aura's voice in my head tells me to calm down."
3. "Morana had spent hours hunting down a vampire belonging to a particular tribe or pack or whatever they called it, so she wasn’t about to let this vampire escape."

For those 3 novels, it's those sentences that popped into my head.

I started writing A Blanket Unwoven sometime in 2008, probably in June. I have no idea when I finished it, probably before May 2009, because that's when I started writing Kenna's Choice.

Summary

• I take months to write short to very short novels
• I don't write every day when I'm writing a novel, even though I try to
• I listen to music when I write
• I close the door when I write
• I do not write more than one novel at a time
• The first chapter of a novel is the easiest part for me
• I write in chronological order -- I don't write chapter 1 then chapter 4 then chapter 2 then 3, but sometimes I'll write a couple hundred words of a scene that takes place later in the book
• I use Scrivener to write -- I switch to TextEdit or DarkRoom or plain old paper if I'm having trouble writing
• My novels are dialogue-heavy
• My novels are family-themed (but not suitable for the whole family--too many bad things happen and there is way too much swearing, violence and death)
• I tend to write urban fantasy (i.e. vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, etc)
• And yet my first novel was a YA with no supernatural elements

I hope this huge, messy post makes sense and amused you. Leave a comment or go write a blog post about how YOU write. Next Thursday, Maria will guest post about how she writes.

And here's a video about how another write writes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyl9Zt9XxU8&feature=youtu.be

"I'm sick of sleeping with these insipid Manhattan debutantes. Nothing shocks them anymore."

How on earth did I forget to mention that I saw Cruel Intentions for the first time in my life on Sunday?

Maybe it's because I'm frustrated with the fight scene I'm trying to write. Maybe it's because I haven't left the house since last Thursday. (Although that's nothing for me. I once spent 3 weeks locked up inside. Yup. 21 days. BUT it was a holiday house, with a pool.) Maybe it's because I can't stop admiring my pretty red nails. *admires nails some more* Uh, what's that? Right. The movie.

Ah, what can I say apart from I LOVED IT?

Well Ryan Philippe is in it. And Sarah Michelle Gellar. It's funny, it's got great dialogue, and an ending I did NOT expect. So go watch it now if you haven't already seen it, because within mere minutes of watching the movie, I was in love with it. Now if you'll excuse me, I must go and harasss my mom to buy me the DVD.