I Hath Moved!
I now have a beautiful new blog on Blogger.com, In the Shadow of Poetic. You don’t need a Blogger account to comment, so I would love it if you would pay me a visit sometime! 
Journal Writing: evanescent moonlight Links nathan bransford notebooks novels Writing
by Cherise
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Another Writerific Post
This post was going to have a picture at the top. But I have discovered that my template does not allow pictures. 
I shall have to remedy that.
Today we went shopping with Laurie and her mom for fabric, and since we just happened to be at Walmart we picked up some school supplies. As a result, I now have my first 5-subject notebook! I wrote in it as soon as I got home. The first page I wrote on? The first page of the last subject, of course. Creativity is scared by the dread formality of The Very First Page.
My current novel, EM, reached 50k yesterday!!! That’s one NaNoWriMo (which, yes, has now become a unit of measurement, not just an event). It only took me about a year to get here, but hey, at least I’m here. I flipped back through my journal looking for word count references, and I realized that in this past month, I’ve written only 7k of EM. And this is the most productive month I’ve had in a while. It is enough to make one depressed. Let’s hope that this next month I actually reach double-digits (although actually it’s more like quintuple digits… oh, nevermind).
Speaking of which, if you haven’t already, join my writing group, Word Count? The name says it all.
Nathan Bransford posted another wonderful post (he has a habit of doing that) about one question aspiring writers should never ask themselves while reading. I mean, I think it’s OK to ask that question, but I think if you leave your opinions about books where most people leave them… anyways, I will quit rambling about the post when you haven’t read it yet. 
I should be writing, but instead…
I got TAGGED. By Amy Undomiel, (who, by the way, did not exactly tag me, as she tagged anyone who viewed her blog and I viewed it…). Anyways, tags are fun, so I thought I’d do this one.
The Favourites Tag (yes, that is the British spelling, because I am British at heart):
1. What is your favorite color? I could make a joke that only I, my sister, and anyone else who has seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail would understand. But I won’t. And actually, if you’ve seen the movie, you probably already know what the joke is, and hopefully you are laughing, because if you are not then I am quite sad.
Oh yes, the question.
Green.
2. What is your all-time favorite song in the world? My favorite song changes from week to week. At the moment, it’s either Oceano by Josh Groban, or Dark Waltz by Hayley Westenra. Or Fairy Dance by James Newton Howard. Or One Day by Hans Zimmer. One of these days I should compile a list of all my absolute favorite songs and post it on here.
3. What is your favorite book? Probably The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, followed closely by Jane Eyre, A Tale of Two Cities, and the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
4. Top five favorite movies? In no particular order, The Last Samurai, Ironman, The End of the Spear, The Lord of the Rings, and An Affair to Remember. That’s not the definitive list, it’s just the first five movies that came to mind that I really love. I’m sure that as soon as I post this, Iwill think of one that should have been on this list, an I will beat myself over the head because I did not think of it at this moment. Oh well.
5. Favorite food? This must be divided up into two categories: sugar and non-sugar. For non-sugar, there is shrimp and linguini-and-sausage. As for sugar… K-bar!
6. Favorite thing to do? It’s a tie between writing and thinking. Probably a combination of both.
7. Favorite smiley? As an aside, I must say that this is my favorite question on this tag. Let’s see, the one that makes me smile the most is this one: 8-D . The one I use most frequently is this one: . This is the one that I wish I had the guts to use more often (I feel that it could come across as being sarcastic, but I love the eyebrows): ^_^ Random fact: did you know that smileys were first invented in the 1880s? National Geographic said so. ^_^
8. Favorite number? 221. And all you Sherlockians out there know why. 8-D
9. Favorite character? This is my other favorite question. SHERLOCK HOLMES! Schmendrick! SYDNEY CARTON! Spock! (Do I hear a facepalm from any of you non-Trekkies? Yes, I do.) Phileas Fogg! Dr. McCoy! (Hey, at least I did not say Spock again.)
Goodness, a surprising number of my favorite characters have names that start with the letter S.
Name a character Sam, I might like him.
Oh, SAM! Sorry, forgot about him. Frodo wouldn’t have gotten very far without Sam.
But I digress.
10. Favorite drink? Root beer. 
I tag… If you are reading this, you are tagged. I am sorry to say this, but it’s true. But after all, rules are made to be broken, and if you come up with an awesomely exciting excuse for why you could not do this tag, I might be entertained and let you get away. ^_^
Journal Writing: authonomy inkpop Links nathan bransford novels slush pile Writing
by Cherise
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Writing, Writing Sites, and Bad Writing
Oh lookie! A new post. What fun.
And I do know that an intro like that just screams ‘interesting post.’ Like, loudly. Oh well.
I wrote 500 words today! I hope to write a few more at some point this evening, but considering how little writing I’ve been doing recently, that’s pretty good. All the stuff I’ve written in the past month is complete… *searches brain for descriptive word that is not an expletive*… ah, junk. BUT I am marching on nonetheless, because I know that one cannot edit the book until one has finished it. Amen? Amen.
And the whole expletive thing was a joke, by the way.
I know a few of you were worried about that.
Question! All you writer peoples (and teens) out there — has anyone heard of Inkpop or Authonomy? Both of them are writing sites hosted by HarperCollins (one for teens, one for adults), wherein people post their novels, and the novels are ranked based on recommendation, and at the end of every month the editors at HarperCollins consider the best 5 highest-ranked novels for publication. I have not joined either of these sites yet, but I was wondering if any of my readers had, and if so I would like to hear about your experience with those sites.
My investigation of these two websites was sparked by one of Nathan Bransford’s posts about the value of reading slush. It is an excellent post, and if you are a serious writer I highly recommend that you read it. One of the biggest problems with the writing industry today is that agents and editors are constantly flooded with stuff that is complete junk, and I think part of the reason for that is because people do not understand just how much truly awful writing there is in the world. One of the best ways to learn how to be a better writer is to read dozens of examples of how not to write.
And now, if I were truly serious about my craft, I would end this post here and go write.
So I will.
In Regard to a Woeful Lack of Many Things
My dear friend Leesie recently informed me that I had not posted on any of my blogs since May. May! I reflected that since I have actually been on the internet during the past two months, it was only right that I should have posted. In short, I ran out of excuses, and decided to make ammends.
What shall I say? I feel no need to give you a super-long update on my life. Hey, I know you love me, but you don’t love me that much, right? And besides, if anything drastic and life-changing had happened, I would have mentioned it at the top of this paragraph, instead of… well, later. 
I’m still trying to write — emphasis on the word ‘trying’ — and the thing I’m trying to write is still Evanescent Moonlight. It is currently 44k long, and I really hope that the thing will hurry up and END soon so that I can be done with it. The book needs a second draft in the worst way.
And by the way, do you like my new template? I do. It makes me think writerly thoughts.
