I’m baaack!

Originally posted on the 10th of October 2010 (I was too lazy to copy-paste until now)

School

I knew I was going to be busy this school year, but oddly enough, all I’ve done since going back to school is:

• go to school
• do homework
• eat
• sleep
• go to school
• do homework
• watch TV
• a little bit of reading
• a teeny tiny bit of writing
• do more homework
• go to school some more
• go to ONE party
• sleep
• sleep
• go to school

Notice what pops up a lot on this list?

I guess it’s understandable I’d have a lot of homework–I AM in my before last year of school… But school is so much more tiring this year, and even though I haven’t had THAT much homework, I’m always tired, so my free time goes to waste.

Oh, and as it turned out, there are people in my class I know, namely Naomi (http://greyperception.wordpress.com/), a very good friend of mine. But because of circumstances, we only have normal maths and sport together. Wanna know these circumstances? I’m sure you do. Here they are:

1. We’re not in the same Physics/Science group
2. I take Spanish LV2, she takes Italian LV2
3. I chose Italian LV3, she chose HIDA (history of art)
4. I chose maths as my specialty (different from the other maths), she chose HIDA
5. While I’m in normal French class, she’s in FLE because she doesn’t speak fluent French (for those of you who don’t know/forgot, I’m French and go to an International school in France)
6. For English, History and Geography, we’re in different groups

What else can I tell you about school? Oh, there are 3 guys in my class. That’s two more than last year. Of course that’s only for the, well, “core class”, I guess you could call it, which is 1ereL1, meaning Literary 11th grade 1 (there’s 2 Literary 11th grade classes).

Movies

• 7  days: Boring.
• The Godfather: Enjoyed it.
• Life of Brian: Loved it, especially the end.
• City of God: Now this one… This movie was MIND-BLOWINGLY GOOD. I HIGHLY recommend it. The actors were unknown/had actually lived in such conditions, so the acting is perfect. It could have been a documentary. And despite having many scenes where kids kill other kids, those are not the most shocking. The most shocking, horrible scene is when one character shoots two little kids in the foot. Just writing that sentence is making me feel sad and horrified again. And this is coming from someone who must have seen at least a hundred horror movies. Oh, and if you’re wondering, I watched it in the original Brazilian Portuguese (with French subtitles) which makes the movie much better than if I’d watched in the dubbed French. Dubbing should be illegal–usually the voices sound so fake because they’re not truly acting; all they’re doing is speaking, they’re not also running through the forest like the real actors were, climbing a tree, etc.

Books

• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov: I started this book in January and finished it in September. I read it on and off for NINE months–does that give you ANY idea of how well written the book is? Nabokov’s prose is beautiful and vivid, but what truly made it difficult for me to read the novel is Humbert Humbert (hereafter referred to as “HH”) who, by the end of the book, is completely insane, unstable, unreliable. And you could think that HH is the one with the power in his relationship with Lolita, but she’s the one who manipulates him. Recommend it.
• Fang by James Patterson: Guilty pleasure, enjoy the story and certain character but not the writing. Dialogue is mostly cheesy or immature for characters of those ages. Entertaining nonetheless.
• Third book I’ve read recently gets its own paragraphy thingy.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher

Wow.

Summary from Amazon (UK):

Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning. He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? The story takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing months in the outback. Months when the lines between love and obsession, and love and dependency, blur until they don’t exist – almost.

Characters

• Ty: At first, you hate him, just like Gemma does, then as she learns about his past, the way his father never cared about him, the way his mother abandoned him, the way he ended up living all alone at the age of 11, you feel sorry for him, you understand why he is the way he is. And at the end, when Gemma is confused about her feelings for him, so was I. You know you should hate him, but he never truly hurts Gemma.
• Gemma: I read a one star review of this book on Amazon that calls Gemma boring, and I actually have to agree with them on that one. (They say the whole book is boring–that’s where I disagree.) Based on what we find out about her as kid, I’d say she’s interesting, but maybe as a teen she wanted to blend in, be accepted and liked, so she stopped being herself. But I suppose one thing I can say in her favor is that she tries to escape several times and even when she realizes she cannot escape, she’s alone with him in the Australian Outback with the nearest town VERY far away, she doesn’t give in to Ty. She could have easily given up, completely given up, she could have spent her entire time crying (she does spend some time crying–I mean come on, she’s away from her family, her friends, her home and everything she’s used to), but she doesn’t.

 The word “fuck” in this novel

It was so nice to see the word be used in the book. Most of the time, writers are afraid to use it, but people say “fuck” when they talk, especially people like Ty–he kidnapped a girl, he’s not going to say stuff like “Gosh darn it” or “Frick.”

I, for one, say “fuck.” But I know not to say it in front of teachers, extended family members (I say extended because in my house, around my parents and my siblings, almost anything goes), strangers, etc. But “fuck” is just a word–kids reading it in a book won’t become juvenile delinquents just because of it. Nor will they become juvenile delinquents if they start swearing, or swearing more often.

If you believe this, well…does that make me a juvenile delinquent? Because I get good grades, never ditch school, have never stolen in my life, never smoked, never done drugs, never had sex or even kissed a boy. So I’d say that if you firmly believe swearing leads to bad behavior, you might need to rethink that belief of yours. Ditto if you believe novels in which characters do bad thing influence people, because I’ve read books such as “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess, everything by Ellen Hopkins, “Speak” by Laurie Halse Anderson, etc.

Writing

I have written, I kid you not, 667 words since the 1st of September. Pathetic or what? So I’m thinking of using NaNoWriMo to help me finish writing The Way Wars Are Won, just like I did with Kenna’s Choice. It’ll be the kick up the butt I desperately need.

Denial, how I hate thee…

Posted originally on the 2nd of September 2010 (I was too lazy to copy-paste until now)

So tomorrow I go back to school, and I’m freaking out. I don’t what class I’m in, who’s in my class and if I’ll know anyone who’s in my class. I haven’t finished the summer reading, or started writing my report on my two-week work experience. I also haven’t reached 55 000 words in “The Way Wars Are Won”, which I wanted to do by the end of August.

I also STILL haven’t finished editing chapter 3 of “Kenna’s Choice” or finished reading “Lolita”.

AND I start at 8.30, not 10, meaning I have to wake up at 6.30 a.m. That’s in less than 8 hours people. *gulp* Then again, I never get enough sleep during the school year…

Anyway…

Earlier this week, I truly panicked and abandoned my computer for two days, during which I did nothing by waste time in front of the TV, in total denial of my homework. I also stopped writing.

But tomorrow, after school, I will start reading “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (here’s hoping it’s better than “Dubliners” which is, in my opinion, badly written, boring and each short story never goes anywhere) and do some writing.

Word Count from the 1st of August to today:

1st    Sunday    391
2nd    Monday    65
3rd    Tuesday    114
4th    Wednesday    528
5th    Thursday    33
6th    Friday    672
7th    Saturday    0
8th    Sunday    0
9th    Monday    0
10th    Tuesday    0
11th    Wednesday    846
12th    Thursday    808
13th    Friday    0
14th    Saturday    678
15th    Sunday    859
16th    Monday    160
17th    Tuesday    1405
18th    Wednesday    245
19th    Thursday    1426
20th    Friday    277
21st    Saturday    0
22nd    Sunday    15
23rd    Monday    0
24th    Tuesday    0
25th    Wednesday    1080
26th    Thursday    0
27th    Friday    0
28th    Saturday    61
29th    Sunday    0
30th    Monday    0
31st    Tuesday    0
1st    Wednesday    120
2nd    Thursday    0

Hopefully, September will be a better month. “If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it. The more things you do, the more you can do.” And I will be busy–homework, school, social life (maybe), reading, writing, editing, possibly critiquing for my critique partner as well as blogging and tweeting.

Movies I’ve seen:

• Mad Max
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
• Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome [I LOVE all three movies, especially the second]
• Cocoon (meh)
• The Shining (AMAZING)

And I think that’s it…

Kayleigh fails at writing

I don't know why but lately, well, look at the word count:

18th    Wednesday    245
19th    Thursday    1426
20th    Friday    277
21st    Saturday    0
22nd    Sunday    15
23rd    Monday    0
24th    Tuesday    0
25th    Wednesday   314


As for editing Kenna's Choice... It started out fairly well, but I haven't made any changes since... Sunday? I'm not actually sure. All I know is I've been wasting time on the internet these past few days, feeling tired and doing very little reading. The very little reading=a few pages of Lolita and the 91-page play "Our Country's Good" for school.

Yeah. Maybe it's the heat getting to me, and the lack of sleep. Or lack of leaving the house.
Sometime soon, we're going to see Ondine, which I think will be good for me. Then maybe I should see my friends.

Words behind on goal for TWWAW: 2279


Depressing thing is that some writer write more than that in one day. I guess I could catch up if I had one or two fantastic writing days.

Zombies vs Unicorns giveaway

Jackson Pearce will give away an arc of Zombies vs Unicorns when she reaches 2500 followers on twitter. Even if you don't want the arc, go follow her. She's funny, nice and an amazing writer.

"Yeah, they'll build monuments to you about this high that read 'Rest in Peace'!"

Flatliners: There are some funny lines of dialogue, one of which is the title of this post, but that's not why I'm in awe of the scriptwriter. The premise of the movie is 5 people who kill each other to find out what's beyond death, then bring each other back. How do you transform THAT into an entire movie? But he managed.

For some reason, I can't find anything else to say about this movie.

Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog: Now this I've got plenty to say, but that's because it's from Joss Whedon and I LOVE anything he creates.

So. Dr Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is in 3 acts and in total is only 42, more or less. I wanted more the second it was over. And they might be doing a sequel!

It's a musical/comedy about Dr Horrible, whose real name is Billy. He wants to join the Evil League of Evil who will be watching him to see what crime he commits. If it's horrible enough, he can join the league.

As Billy, he's pathetic and in love with Penny, who, naturally, doesn't realize this. Standing in his way is Captain Hammer who ends up dating Penny.

Dr Horrible is played by Neil Patrick Harris from "How I Met Your Mother".

Penny is played by Felicia Day—she played Vi in BTVS.

Captain Hammer is played by Nathan Fillion—he played Caleb in BTVS.

Favorite line: "The hammer is my penis." —Captain Hammer

Writing: This is a pretty simple "revelation", but I just found my solution to the lack of plot in my novels. To me, it's all about the characters, so why not focus on creating realistic characters before starting my novel? Then I let the character interact and the plot will form itself. Does this make sense to anyone else but me?

Query Tracker: If you're about to start querying—or going to next year like me—then you should definitely use Query Tracker to find agents. Know what else is your friend during the querying process?

Spreadsheets: So here are the different column headers in my "Agents to query" spreadsheet:

• Agency
• Agent's Name
• Who they represent
• Address, e-mail, Twitter, website [this works better as one column for me—I use NeoOffice]
• Genres they represent
• Notes [such as "include first chapter in body of e-mail" or "only send query" or "any requested material is sent by mail" and the agent's response time if they mention it on their website]
• Date of Query
• Date of Partial Request
• Date of Full Request
• Offer of Representation
• Date of Rejection

My long list of goals

• Reach 55 035 words in TWWAW by the 31st of August 2010
• Edit chapters 1 through 9 of Kenna's Choice by the 2nd of September 2010
• Reach 68535 words in TWWAW by the 30th of September 2010
• Reach 75 285 words in TWWAW by the 15th of October 2010
• Edit chapters 10 through 17 + prologue of Kenna's Choice by 31st of December 2010
• Second round of editing Kenna's Choice done by 31st of March 2011 (by then I'll 17!)
• Write query letter for Kenna's Choice by the 30th of April 2011
• Third round of editing Kenna's Choice done by 30th of June 2011
• Start querying Kenna's Choice the 15th of July 2011 (enough time to make sure my query and my manuscript are perfect)

"Spike follows the smell of Willow and we follow the fairly ripe smell of Spike."

The Wolfman 2010: Meh. I started watching it a week or two ago and couldn't get into it. I thought it was because I was tired. Now that I finally finished watching it, I know it wasn't. So why couldn't I get into it? It's not a good movie. The make-up/special effects are really well done, but overall it's nothing special. I don't recommend it.


Wrong Turn: I'd already seen it years ago, but I had forgotten a lot about it, the major thing being it's actually a good horror movie. The characters aren't too stupid and eventually they realize what they have to do to survive. I recommend it.

Wrong Turn 2: Dead End: Because it's a sequel, it's obviously worse than the first and way gorier. But it's still not too bad.

Writing

Playing with Darts

Wednesday I wrote a measly 245 words, but that's because I was drained from the previous day's writing. But yesterday I caught up and wrote...

1426 words!

Deadline: 15th of October

In other news, I have found the perfect title for "Playing with Darts". Ready?

The Way Wars Are Won

It's from a line in season 7 of Buffy. Good thing I did that marathon, huh?

Kenna's Choice

I've given myself until June to get Kenna's Choice in shape to start querying. Yes, that means I'm going to try and get it published. It's weird—I had no intention of getting it published. I thought that my first novel-length story wouldn't be good enough, but my critique partner said some very good things about it, and I have a list of things to delete (subplot of Kenna's aunt) and things to expand (Kenna's sister's storyline).

Word count for Draft 2:

Goals

• Have edited chapters 1–9 by the end of August.
• Have 55 035 words for TWWAW

The glorious wordcount of Tuesday the 17th

1405

"I bought the airline. [...] It seemed neater."

*****There WILL be SPOILERS***** (Search "End Spoilers")

Inception: Oh. My. God. Wow. I mean not only is the idea of the movie very original, but you also get the sexy Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has grown up a LOT since I last saw him in "10 things I hate about you".

Now this annoying kid critic, Jackson, said "Inception" was confusing—yes, it has the potential to be confusing, but I found it easy to understand. By potential, I'm referring to the levels of dreams. The main characters are on a plane asleep while dreaming that they're asleep in a van while dreaming that they're asleep in a hotel while dreaming that they're on a mountain and some are asleep there but dreaming of being in Limbo.

Don't get what I'm saying? That's okay—it makes perfect sense when you watch the movie.

Re: Jackson: the adult he was talking to in that video agreed and said even he was confused. Um, I'm 16 and my sister's 13 yet we both understood the movie. And of course my dad understood it.

When I told my dad this, I added that it reminded me of "Pink Floyd: The Wall"—somebody on IMDB said the transition from present to past and back wasn't clear. I thought it was.

One thing about the special effects: they were so good, it seemed normal. As in there really was no gravity, or the city really was folding in half.

And Mal. Oh, Mal. She's such an angry, bitter character—and reminded me so much of Pippa in Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle Trilogy. Both are trapped in an other world—dream for Mal, magical, in a way, for Pippa—and both wish their loved ones would join them, and even try to trick them then grow angry when they refuse.

V for Vendetta: Again, wow. V is a character you should hate, I mean he tortures Evey, but you simply don't. And even though I knew it was Hugo Weaving's voice, I couldn't recognise it. He sounded so different.

Amazing movie. And the main theme is something I cannot stand: injustice. So seeing Sutler die and everyone "win" was very satisfying.

And Valerie's story was so sad...so beautiful, especially this part:

But what I hope most of all is that you understand what I mean when I tell you that, even though I do not know you, and even though I may never meet you, laugh with you, cry with you, or kiss you, I love you. With all my heart, I love you.

That's when I started tearing up.

When you wish you could have written a certain piece of dialogue, or wish you could have created that character, or wish you could have put one of your characters in that situation, then you know it's good.

In my case, I wish I'd written Valerie's autobiography.

*****END SPOILERS*****

Writing

So far, August in word count looks like this:

1st    Sunday    391
2nd    Monday    65
3rd    Tuesday    114
4th    Wednesday    528
5th    Thursday    33
6th    Friday    672
7th    Saturday    0
8th    Sunday    0
9th    Monday    0
10th    Tuesday    0
11th    Wednesday    846
12th    Thursday    808
13th    Friday    0
14th    Saturday    678
15th    Sunday    859
16th    Monday    160
17th    Tuesday    12 (so far)

Total: 5166
Should be: 7515

Foreshadowing: it is awesome

I've blogged about this before, so here's a little reminder so you can understand the rest of this post:

In chapter 18, Fabienne, a French vampire, revealed something about herself. Something I didn't plan or know until the moment she revealed it.

And then I realized that a few things I'd written earlier in the chapter now made perfect sense. At the time, I had no idea why I wrote those thing, and oddly enough, I hadn't questioned it. I hadn't thought to myself "Why is she choosing to describe her that way?"

And a little after that, I realized another description in chapter 6 made sense. /Reminder


And now, today, as I'm plotting, I went back to chapter 4 for some reason and something there also makes sense. Basically, Fabienne has been dropping hints about herself from the moment she appeared on page. So to speak.

Is that not THE most awesome thing EVER?

And if you're wondering why this post is also in the category "Procrastination" it's because that's what I've been doing for the past 5 or 6 hours.

Tomorrow, 10.30 a.m.: Buffy Season 7 Marathon

Buffy Marathon: Oh yeah! My sister and I want to see in how little time we can watch the entire season 7. The only breaks will be: toilet and food. There are 22 episodes and each episode is about 42 minutes: 22*42=924. 924/60=15.4

That's 15.4 hours of Buffy. Broken up by lunch, dinner and toilet breaks, we should be able to finish our marathon Saturday, at 4 a.m. The latest. Wish us luck!


"How I write" series: Angela's guest post about how she writes will be posted at 11 p.m. French time.

"Jeepers Creepers": It was not what I expected at ALL. And the ending is not what you usually see in horror movies. I kinda recommend it--but don't bother buying it. At least not the full price--get it second hand if you really want the DVD.

Writing: My goal for today was to reach 45 000. I still need 458 words to make that happen and it's 1.30 a.m. *bites lip* Maybe I can still do it? Oh, and the chapter I'm working on is chapter 21. I've been waiting a week or two to write it and it is so sad. I'm even considering saving the characters, and if I did, it would be credible. It wouldn't be a "deus ex machina."

I'll see how it goes. Total word count: 44 542.

“The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

—Walter Bagehot

Why you should persevere in your writing

And once again, I'm awake and blogging after 4 in the morning. My excuse? I wrote 846 words but am still 3926 words behind. I think that's reason enough to stay up late.

But my main reason for this post is that my time line issues are over! It took me a week, lots of comfort food, music, tables and spreadsheets and multiple windows open side by side, but today I did it. With a bowl of my favorite biscuits (ginger nut), the door closed, a Textedit document and a NeoOffice document open, I finished untangling that knot.

This, in turn, helped me to keep writing chapter 21. Had I not persevered, I would not be writing chapter 21 today.

Conclusion? Persevere and ye shall be rewarded with a higher word count. And happiness.

Total word count: 43734

Percentage: 58.31

Chapter 21 stands at: 640 w0rds

-Kayleigh

PS: It would appear I'm not the only one who, in the month of August, has given herself a certain amount of words to write per day. Nikki-Lee and Angela have both giving themselves goals. Go to their blogs and congratulate and encourage them. Why? Ye shall be rewarded with a teaser on Nikki's blog and interesting facts about Japan on Angela's.

"Why?" you ask again.

Oh just go do it.

...

Because I say so!

“Leave it to me to fall for a *dead guy*!”

It’s half-past four in the morning and here I am, starting a blog post about the emotions TV shows can make me feel. But I really want to write this post now.

See, I’ve been watching TV shows and movies since I was a kid, and it became a ritual to rent a DVD, buy a tub of salted popcorn and a packet of Maltesers and watch that DVD in the “green room” with my sister. The green room was small with a TV, bed that we used as a couch, bookshelf for DVDs and a cupboard full of games.

In that room, I fell in love with Buffy, cried when she lost Angel time and time again, gasped at the drama in Desperate Housewives and stayed up late watching horror movies on Friday nights.

Buffy is a TV show that means a lot to me and I’ve already mentioned on this blog that it is the reason I’m writing Playing with Darts: I want to make readers feel what I felt while watching Buffy. I want readers to fall in love with my characters, laugh at the horrible things that happen because, like my mother once said (I think), sometimes you just have to laugh at the situation you’re in.

I want readers to root for the characters and want them to kill the Big Bad. I want readers to cry when characters die and rejoice when people are reunited.

Oddly enough, what inspired this post is Charmed. Charmed has also made me feel the same things as Buffy. Don’t even get me started on the whole Piper/Leo drama.

BUT I want to talk about Piper and Mark, the ghost from season 1.

Summary of the episode: Tony Wong, a criminal, kills Mark, on his birthday no less, and uses his body to fake his own death. Mark is overjoyed when he finds out that Piper and Phoebe, two witches, can see him. He needs his body to be buried or else Yama will take his soul to hell, even though he’s good. Piper, once she’s convinced he’s a ghost, decides to help him.

I’d only seen that episode once, and rewatching it today was like watching it for the first time. And I was amazed at how the writers and actors and actresses got us caring so much for Piper and Mark in just 40 minutes.

Even just thinking about it now is making me tear up.

I hate and love the creators of those TV shows because they’re so cruel when it comes to our feelings, but I aspire to do the same thing to my readers one day.

Because if a story doesn’t make you feel something–whether that something is anger, fear, happiness, sorrow or love–then what good is it?

The test of literature is, I suppose, whether we ourselves live more intensely for the reading of it.
-Elizabeth Drew

"Mentally Fragile Teen Arrested in Stolen Car; Says She Was Looking for a Demon."

The post title is a quote from "My Soul To Save" by Rachel Vincent.

I'm back! And I've got lots of things to blog about: movies, books, writing, spending 6+ hours in a car stuck between my siblings.

First, though, an explanation for the lack of blogging and tweeting: internet stopped working on my laptop. My dad and I fiddled with the settings to fix one problem and ended up causing another without even solving the other problem. Typical. My dad fixed internet problem last night, or rather this morning, because it was 2 a.m.

Moving on.

Movies

Do NOT judge me for watching Disney movies. When you're lazy like I am and you sit down on the couch, you end up watching whatever's on. Anyway, the ones I watched weren't too bad.

• Dadnapped: Melissa's father is a writer, he gets kidnapped and she decides to save him. It was okay. Cliche: police ignores a kid's call because a kid can't possibly be telling the truth. Oh, your dad's been kidnapped? You saw it on a camera, you have proof? Call in a missing person's report in 48 hours. Ridiculous.
• Princess Protection Program: Demi Lovato plays a princess who moves in with a normal American family to protect her country and mother from some evil dictator guy. Meh.
• Wizards of Waverly Place: The movie: It was missing that something the TV show has, but overall I liked it.
• The Nanny Diaries: IMDB summary: A college graduate (Annie) goes to work as a nanny for a rich New York family. Ensconced in their home, she has to juggle their dysfunction, a new romance, and the spoiled brat in her charge.
  I loved it! Brilliant and I loved what Annie did at the end.
• The Bounty Hunter: Funny, but if wasn't for Gerard Butler, I don't think I would have wanted to see it. Unexpected ending.
• Friday the 13th: Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan: When a series of movies go on and on, the movies tend to get worse, but I actually liked this one. Of course, it's ridiculous that people running for their lives trip and stumble so much, but that happens in all horror movies. In real life, it's not like that. My dad would know: he once had an ostrich running after him. Once he was safe, my mom told him she'd never seen him run that fast when he played rugby. And did my dad trip/stumble/fall? No. When a person runs for their life, the adrenaline rush and fear means they don't trip. And the "Jason Takes Manhattan" part took ages to appear.

Books (there will be spoilers)

My Soul To Save: I finally finished reading it, but I'm still working my way through 4 books. Damn it! I shall start no more books, except the 3 books I have to read for school.

Anyway, what did I think of this book? I loved it as I love all of Rachel Vincent's books. Kaylee Cavanaugh is a banshee (written bean sidhe in the book) and in this book, the second in the Soul Screamer series, she wants to save a singer's soul: Addison Page sold her soul to become famous and rish, thus saving her family from poverty.

BIG SPOILER: Addison's sister ends up also selling her soul, making it even more difficult for Kaylee to save their souls before Addison dies. They know in advance that Addison will die on a Thursday, only days away. I was really hoping Addison wouldn't die, but she does. And Kaylee can't save Addison's soul. Sure, she saves Regan's, the little sister, but Addison's soul will be tortured for all eternity.

I wonder how Kaylee will deal with the guilt she feels. Also: for a YA series, it's pretty dark. Which I LOVE, because I'm weird that way.

Writing

My goal for August is to write 610 words every day. This will bring me to almost 60 000 words by the 31st. (Exactly: 59 995 words.) See how bad it's going? I'm 3552 words behind.

My goal for September is 500 words a day.

Other problems: I've got another time line problem. Here's what I emailed my critique partner:

It is so hard writing when you go from one POV to another, and have 8 POVs in total, and character X dies in chapter 14, on a Thursday but because chapter 20 takes place on a Wednesday, X is still alive. Not to mention character Y does/says stuff in chapter 14 that doesn't make sense anymore because of a secret revealed in chapter 20. All while making sure I alternate POVs often enough and keeping track of my huge cast of characters that keeps growing.

Let's say that the time line is a long piece of rope. That piece of rope is one giant knot that I've been trying to undo for the past few days. I have made very little progress.

Word count: 42 888.

Ghost Stories

So the first of August, I went to see Ghost Stories. Maybe you saw my two tweets?

Ghost stories starts in 20 minutes. Apparently it's really scary.

and then

Lights are dim. Cold air. Loud, scary noises. Wondering if this will scare me.

Having seen a LOT of horror movies, and only two of them scaring me to the point where I didn't finish them, I wasn't sure this could scare me. Did it?

Answer: Yes. It freaked me out, I jumped, I gasped, my heart raced and I was on edge for the next time something would make me jump.

The advantage a theater has over horror movies shown in cinemas or at home is they can involve more of our senses. We not only see and hear things: we can also smell and feel things. Such as the cold and the smell of [deleted].

At the end, they ask the audience not to reveal the twist, so I won't tell you anything. But if you like horror movies and you're looking for a good scare, and you live near London, then I urge you to go see it.

"Ghost Stories", I think, has reinstilled a fear of horror movies in me. Example? Please, I beg you, don't laugh, but in an episode of Wizards of Waverly Place, a ghost does this scary face where his head becomes huge and it made my heart race. But I think it's more that I was still jumpy from "Ghost Stories." But I was terrified of the dark for the following two nights.

Now I'm fine.

Mostly.

Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical

On Wednesday, I got a haircut (hadn't gotten one in 8 months--maybe more) and at 7.30 PM, I saw "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert: The Musical."

Having seen the movie 3 times, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy it as much. BUT the actors and actresses were so full of energy and so fantastic that I now love it even more.

One thing you have to know to understand my favorite line is that Bernadette and Felicia--wait a minute, do you even know what it's about? IMDB gives this sentence to summarize it: Two drag queens and a transsexual get a cabaret gig in the middle of the desert.

Anyway, Bernadette and Felicia argue. A lot. In a very funny and catty way.

My favorite line: Bernadette to Felicia in a woman's voice: If you feel like joining us later on, FIGHT IT.

The last two words are said in a man's voice, making it that much funnier.

They added jokes that weren't in the movie and we see more of Shirley, but the drinking contest between Bernadette and Shirley isn't there.

If you're in or near London, go see it at the Palace Theater.

Clash of the Titans--1981 and 2010 versions

To be honest, I didn't even finish watching the 1981 version--that's how bad the special effects are.

The 2010 one was much better, but if you never watch either one, you're not missing anything fantastic.

Right at your Door

A thriller in which a "dirty bomb" explode in downtown LA. Unfortunately for Brad, his wife Lexi was there and got infected. He seals himself in his house with Alvaro, a guy who can't get a bus to his own house. Then Lexi appears! She didn't die, but she's infected. Brad can't let her in the house if he wants to stay alive.

There's a twist that redeems the movie a little, but overall it wasn't that great.

Writing

Let's not talk about it. Monday to right now: 351 words.

Plotting

I finally fixed a few problems with the timeline. I know from whose POV each chapter is from chapter 20 to 51. It's all good. Now if I only I can motivate myself to write. I'm having way too much fun plotting.

England: A trip into London

a.k.a HELL!

Well, okay, London itself isn't really hell, it's more the fact that I spent about 7 hours there with my family.

We took the train at twenty to two in the afternoon and the first shop we went into was a South African one. We bought biltong there. Delicious, wonderful biltong. Last time we had any was in The Netherlands, 3 years ago!

Our first official stop was at the Natural History Museum. We had to queue for fifteen minutes just to get INTO the damn museum. Then we had a look at some of the things on display in the hall before finding out we had to queue to see the dinosaur exhibition, the big one.

Oh, and we hadn't eaten lunch. So by the end of THAT, we were hungry and our feet were hurting.

After lunch in a Chinese place, where I found out I had the ability to use chopsticks properly, we went to Hamleys, the biggest toy shop in Europe. It was HELL for me.

Trafalgar Square: we climbed on one of the lions and our dad took a picture. I have a slight fear of heights, so that was only slightly scary.

And, the highlight of my day, Foyles. The bestest ever bookshop I've EVER been to. Yes, I am aware that is a bad sentence, but who cares. Not me.

Okay, so by the time we got to Foyles (it took us quite some time--got lost, arguing, sore feet), I was too exhausted to look at the books. I sat down half a minute then thought "Fuck it" and began looking at all the wonderful books!

One thing you should know about Foyles: it's a maze. Seriously. I kinda got lost in that place. But somehow, by just wandering around, I ended up in the Fantasy section, then Paranormal Romance, then Teen Noir, so all was good.

The books I got?

1. Thinner by Stephen King
2. Christine by Stephen King
3. Liar by Justine Larbalestier
4. The Dust of 100 dogs by A.S. King
5. The Mammoth Book of Vampire Romance (which has a short story by Rachel Vincent=reason I bought it)
6. Beauty and The Beast by Robin McKinley
7. The Carbon Diaries: 2017 by Saci Lloyd.

Oh, we also bought tickets for "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert", the musical. We're going to see it tomorrow night. And tomorrow around 1 pm, I'm getting a haircut.

That's why today, Tuesday, is a relaxing day indoors.

Writing

Sunday: 261

Monday: 7

So far today: 0

Grrr...

Plotting

So I'm writing chapter 20 and I have no idea where the characters will take me.

However, I know, more or less, what chapters 21 and 22 will be about:

• A trial,
• sadness, and
  
• the last time we ever see characters L and J.

But who knows, things could change. Character M was SUPPOSED to be evil, and she turned out to be really kind.

I've also got a bit of problem with the timeline. And an idea just hit me. It's perfect.

England: Day 9

Day 7: Friday: I think we stayed in. I wrote 413 words.

Day 8: Saturday: I wrote 0 words. :( And we stayed in. Again. I don't mind, and it's actually partially my fault (I go to bed too late), but my mom's getting annoyed. Why? Because...

Day 9: Sunday: Today we were supposed to go out. I don't think that's gonna happen any more. It's 1pm.

Movies

• Harriet the Spy: Blogs Wars: Meh.
• I rewatched The Virgin Suicides.
• And that's it. I need to convince my family to watch Clash of the Titans (1981 version) with me.

Books

• I am reading "My Soul to Save" by Rachel Vincent, even though I should finish reading "Lolita", "The Sweet Far Thing" and "A Forest of Hands and Teeth" *is an idiot sometimes*.

I have weird dreams

As per usual, I don't even know where to start. Something about a guy and a girl, then he can't find the girl and it turns out he imagined her. And he shoots her in the forehead. Then she reappears, has a scar on her forehead from the bullet. She's now real, I think.

Then there was something with slides and tunnels and water and snakes. Oddly enough, I think I've had that dream before.

Then I was in some shopping center and then someone was chasing a friend and me. And the friend decided to carry me on her shoulders. Eventually we lost the guy chasing us and we sat down on a couch to watch TV. In the middle of the shopping center. And we hid under a sheet when he got close to finding us.

See what I mean by weird dreams?

Word count as it is now: 40271

Word count as I want it by tonight: 40 771.

England: Day 6, we go shopping

Movies (SPOILERS)

• Panic Room: Good. Although they were some moments when the mother and her daughter were SO stupid, but it's to be expected in thrillers, I suppose.
  
• Valentine's Day: Good. Better than I expected. Did NOT expect Julia Roberts to be the little boy's mother. I admit it: I teared up. And a lot of people are saying Taylor Swift's acting was horrible, but I honestly thought it was supposed to be cheesy and bad. If not: WOW. Scary.
  
• The Sixth Sense: Amazing. Yes, I know, it's taken me THIS long to see it. Whatever. My favorite line is: "They don't have meetings about rainbows."

Books (SPOILERS)

I finally finished reading "A Clockwork Orange" and all I have to say is: wow. Go read it if you don't mind books where the protagonist is evil.

(Warning: He doesn't give a shit about the law--he murders, steals and rapes. Other warning: Anthony Burgess invented slang for the teens called "nadsat". It takes a while to get used to.)

I saw the movie AGES ago, so I already knew what it was about. The one major difference is that chapter 21 of the book is ignored. Apparently, Stanley Kubrick wanted a realistic ending. In the book, Alex changes and wants to be good. In the movie, he goes back to being evil.

Anthony Burgess is really good: you end up rooting for Alex, even though you know what he's done. Time and time again, people betray him: his friends, his parents, strangers. And this makes you feel sorry for him.

Shopping

• Boots: I got girly stuff like a tangle teaser, moisturizer, etc. That's it. No clothes, no shoes. Couldn't really find anything...
  

Writing

Wednesday: 1110 words.

Thursday: 250 words. I'd like to write more, but I've got to wake up early to go to the Natural History Museum. Ugh.

Something that I realized at the hairdresser's (my mom got a haircut, and yes, as you would expect, it rained later on. But we had umbrellas) is that I have foreshadowing in chapter 6 for the thing that's revealed in chapter 18. This was NOT done on purpose, because even I had no idea that Fabienne was [deleted] until chapter 18. But this description in chapter 6 now makes more sense. I love when that happens. (And no, it does not happen very often.)

Total: 39858=53%

England: Day 3, we go out

Movies

• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief: Eh. It was okay.
• Friday the 13th, Part 5: A New Beginning: Same.
• Another Cinderella Story: Meh. I REALLY liked the dancing scene with the mirror, but so many parts irritated me.
• Bring It On: Fight to the Finish: Ugh. When are they gonna stop making these movies? I loved the first one, but now I watch them to make fun of the dialogue and characters.
• Toy Story 3: *sigh* I'd heard people saying it was REALLY good and the movie did NOT disappoint. Very good.

Day 1 included the ferry ride and unpacking. Day 2 we stayed in and just watched TV. Day 3, Monday, we went out and did the following:

• WHSmith: Books! I got books! Hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick, Succubus Blues by Richelle Mead and Fang by James Patterson (the Maximum Ride series is my guilty pleasure). I also got "Clash of the Titans", the 1981 version.
• Pound shop: I got two pens and skittles. Boring, I know.
• Heart Foundation shop: DVDs! A Knight's Tale, Panic Room, IT and many others.

Day 4, Tuesday, we went to see Toy Story 3 and I got two DVDs for 5 pounds! "Thelma and Louise" and "Red Dawn" (my mom's comments: "But it's a boys' film. And it's ancient." How has she not realized by now that I LOVE "boys' movies and movies from the eighties?).

Day 5, Wednesday, which is today, we're staying in. Tomorrow, however, is a shopping day. Yippee.

Writing

Friday 730
Saturday 186
Sunday 732
Monday 287
Tuesday 58
Wednesday 131

And Wednesday is far from over.

Total word count: 38629

Oh, I was supposed to post this on Monday, but so many things got in the way (leaving the penthouse, internet not working, siblings wanting to watch movies) that I'm only posting this today.

Day 2 is not over yet: only 3 hours spent in car with family

This morning, I got to wake up at 8! And then we only had 3 and a half hours in the car! *sigh* I also read more of "A Clockwork Orange" and wrote 700 words. And it's only 5 pm.

One thing we've noticed about the houses here, and everything else really, is it all looks so much like The Netherlands. Which makes us miss The Netherlands even more.

Most people might think all of France is more or less the same, and I kinda thought it was too, but being in the north of France makes me realize the big difference between here and the south of France. The houses are different--brick instead of... I actually don't know what our house in the south of France is made of--and there are canals. And we even saw a windmill.

Anyway, tomorrow we take the ferry. We'll leave at midday, and two hours later, at 1 pm, we'll be there. Nope. That's not a mistake. England is an hour behind France.

Writing

Like I said, I've written 700 words, but now it's almost 10 pm and I haven't written anything since 5.

I probably won't blog again until tomorrow 5 pm, so here are today's numbers:

• Total wordcount: 37205
  
• Chapter 18: 3853 words
  
• Percent: 49,61 (almost 50%!)
  
• Words written since the 11th of June (first day of holiday): 10 800 (that's 308.5 words per day)

Just need to figure out some dates of births for 3 characters, as well as when they became vampires, otherwise nothing makes sense.Ugh. Gonna be complicated.

Day 1 is over: was spent in car with family

You can just guess how much fun that was.

• 6.30 am: Wake up
• 9 am something: Leave. Finally. Mom had planned to leave at 6.30. Ha!
• 12 ish: Lunch. Waiters ignore us most of the time. I have pizza and didn't realize until much later that what I thought was tomatoes, which I don't like, was actually the chorizo, which I do like. Result: I appear stupid to my siblings. They take advantage and mock me. Evil little siblings... Also: My day wanted to pay; the waiter finally acknowledged my dad then told him we have to go the reception. Why couldn't he have taken the time to tell us that 5 minutes earlier, when my dad started trying to get the waiter's attention?
• After lunch until we get to the hotel: In car. Little bit of arguing. Sleeping. I read more of "A Clockwork Orange", finally, and I love it. Amazed that Burgess could invent a whole slang. A slang that you get used to after a while. Then we play a French game called "Baccalaureat" until we reach hotel.
• From then on, we spend time unloading car. We have to make 3 trips. This is normal for us. Yes, I truly needed my laptop bag, my suitcase, my handbag, my vanity box and my pillow! And my iPod dock.

So here I am, at 7 pm in the hotel room writing this. In an hour or so, we'll be off to the restaurant. Today's writing goal: 500 words. Can I do it? Well, luckily, tomorrow doesn't involve as much driving as today, so we don't have to wake up extremely early. So hopefully. Wish me luck!

"Eight dollars for Beer Nuts? This room *is* evil!"

This will be short and to the point because I need to get some sleep. We're leaving early tomorrow for England, where I shall buy all the books I want. *sigh* Giant bookshop=my personal heaven.

Movies I've seen recently:

• Pandorum: Fairly good.
• The Wicker Man--original: Good, strange, sad ending...
• The Wicker Man--remake: Shit. Absolute shit.
• Minority Report: Very good. Loved it.
• 1408: Freaked the hell out of me. So much so I had to stop watching it. But I finished it today and wow. I loved it. Regarding the ending, however... Apparently what I saw is the theatrical ending.

*****SPOILERS*****

When I saw the ending, I thought maybe he had died, because how could the recorder record Katie's voice if she wasn't really there? Then I found out that's the ending where he lives, and Katie's voice on the recorder is EVP, proof for Lily that Mike wasn't lying. I prefer my interpretation.

In the director's cut ending, Mike dies. Then the manage of the hotel sees him in the backseat of his car, then we see Mike in the hotel room and he fades away or something. (I didn't actually see it.)

*****END OF SPOILERS*****

Writing

Since I last blogged, I ended up writing a total of 501 words on Saturday and Sunday I wrote the same amount. Monday was a failure. Tuesday I wrote 480 words. I was stuck, but got unstuck. How did I do this? I used a variation of "When in doubt, kill a character" and introduced a new character. (Well, not really a new character...)

Adding conflict solves writer's block. Most of the time.

But today I have written zero, zilch, nil words. I'm hoping I'll manage to write at least 150 words before going to sleep--which I should be doing NOW.

Tomorrow, I won't be able to write on my laptop until we get to the hotel. Then on Friday same deal. But Saturday, there will be TWO hours on a ferry--with internet access! Which might harm my productivity, but whatever.

Now I'm off to write 150 words in chapter 18 and then print said chapter so I can at least try to write in the car.

First: I overpack. Scratch that--my family overpacks. This time, we vowed to use smaller suitcases. And yet I end up with:

• small suitcase of clothes
• vanity box of bathroom things
• handbag for the car trip: notebooks, pens, books, iPod, phone...
• huge bag with more books, DVDs, iPod dock, phone charger...
• laptop bag

And that's it. Yup: We don't travel light. And yet, that's us traveling light.

That means exactly what you think it means: we used to travel with a LOTTA shit. How much? Well... *said in the manner of Samantha Stephens*

The car would be filled up.

To the ceiling.

Will update Saturday. And Courtney's post about how she writes will be posted Tuesday the 20th of July.