My Actual For Real Bookshelves

Tips for Teenage Writers

In my basement and on the archaic hard drive of a dusty old computer are hundreds of stories and poems I wrote between the ages of 8 and 19. There's also a binder, about 1 1/2 inches thick, that is filled with MacGyver teleplays, but we're not going to discuss that. Though I may not be Stephenie Meyer, I do have some wisdom to offer.

1. Read. 

      Reading a variety of genres and different forms of media (newspapers, blogs, poetry) helps develop your personal voice, your style. Everything you read becomes part of you as a writer. Read as much as you can. Be voracious. 

2. Write.

     And be willing to write crap that you would never, ever let anyone read. The fire hazard in my basement exists because I loved to create characters and stories, not because I wanted to get rich and famous. A true writer writes because her brain goes crazy if she doesn't.

3. Develop Thick Skin

     It's hard I know but you have to let other people (in the beginning only choose people you really trust to give you an honest, constructive opinion...) read your work. It's part of the growing pains. Sometimes the truth hurts but you'll never grow as a writer if you don't allow the negative comments in. Ignore those people who are malicious just because they think it makes them sound intelligent and really appreciate the critics who offer harsh advice because they want to help you get better. 

4. Read Your Own Work.

    This was hard for me in the beginning because in my mind the story was excellent. That was only because I could see it fully fleshed out in my imagination. Read it like you paid twenty bucks for it at Barnes & Noble. Most of the time I hated my stuff after I read it. 

6. Rewrite.

    True writers aren't writers. They're rewriters. I actually started Filter in December 2009. By April 2010 I hated it. It wasn't going the way I wanted it to go. I scrapped it and restarted, yes from the beginning. And it was worth. My characters were much happier. 

7. Revise after you've Rewritten

   I've checked for grammatical and name errors until my vision was literally crossing. Enlist the help of a friend to help you comb through. If people are spending time and money to read your work, you'd better give them the best. 

8. Take risks

    With your writing and your sharing. Open yourself up to people who may not be just like you. They might offer some excellent advice you never would have considered. Allow the unintended to happen in your book. That's something called "originality" and a LOT of books are lacking in it. Let your characters do what they would do on their own and without your control. You might not be ready for them to take the dangerous leap but they are. Trust them. 

9. Be proud of your rejections.

  Even Stephenie Meyer and Stephen King were in the slush piles at one point. I use to tape my rejection letters to the wall. Being rejected means you're at least working toward something. It means you aren't giving up. Keep going.

10. E-publish

   Publish your book online for free at http://www.smashwords.com or amazon.com. Just make sure you have an honest to goodness real copyright. There is no better way to safeguard your work. It's only $35 at http://www.copyright.gov List your work for free. Let the people get to know you before you dare ask for their money. Mine is available for free at http://www.smashwords.com

11. Support other novice novelists

    Don't think of other writers as competition. There are so many readers and it takes us so long to write one good book. Support and encourage and help other authors with their marketing.

12. If you need some encouragement or an honest opinion message me. 

The New Vampire Diaries

I'm only at page 100 of the new book, whatever it's called and it has been extremely difficult to read.
Stefan sounds more like Edward Cullen and I'm trying not to throw up.
The story in the beginning is ridiculous and oozing with overdone sentimentality and feels more like Stephenie Meyer than LJ Smith, you have no idea how much it hurts me to say that.
None of the old pull to Damon exists, granted he's not quite himself, but he doesn't sound like good old Damon either. 
And it's all gotten just a bit too...racey for me. That's why I like teen fiction. It's all the angst and suspense and drama without the sex. And no, there isn't sex, but it's symbolic and I don't appreciate it and if it was my twelve year-old wanting to read it, I would say no. Or I would at least rip out the page with the worst of it.
And yes, I do listen to the Outlander series, it's the one exception where I will tolerate such things, but that's dealing with adults and it isn't written for teens.
And it's really just ridiculous.
The entire opening of the story has been ridiculous and it's inconsistent with the voice of the other books. It seems dumbed down and overly explanatory and just plain silly.
And there are elements of it that are so like the Twilight saga that I checked the copyright date and then the copyright date of Breaking Dawn.
But there seems to be hope.
Maybe.
Now at page 100, it's starting to sound like the old LJ Smith, the one that deserves the title New York Times Bestselling Author. The one that deserves to have her story put onscreen (even if it should be the big screen and not the little one). I just hope it keeps getting better, because if LJ Smith continues to read like Stephenie Meyer, I'm not wasting my time reading the next one. It's one thing for Stephenie Meyer to sound like Stephenie Meyer but it's just wrong for LJ Smith to sound like her and to be so utterly silly.
If Stefan calls Elena, lovely love, one more time, I might wretch.
Romance is NOT sentimentality

Vampire Diaries: Dark Reunion

I spoke too quickly about The Fury being my favorite of the Vampire Diaries series.
It's been awhile, forgive me, and I couldn't remember the fourth book.
But the first line of the first page brought it all back; all the memories of being twelve and having nightmares that mirrored Bonnie's because the dreams she had were so disturbing to me. The part with the teeth falling out, that was already a nightmare of mine and reading about someone else having that nightmare only caused me to be plagued by nights spent losing my own teeth. I was twelve and I didn't fall in love with Stefan. I was in love with Damon, dark and brooding and self-controlled Damon who is somehow always late but also always just in time.
It took me, cumulatively, three hours to read Dark Reunion, having been swept up by that first line. LJ Smith knows, unlike some authors, how to write action, how to time it so that it takes just long enough to put you on edge so that you want to read every word even though you're frightened to because you're not exactly certain what she'll allow the characters to do.
And she knows romance, not just the simpering fairy tale cottage and the designer clothes ( you know what I'm talking about), the real romance behind all things. The romance that links lovers and the romance that just is the sweetness and terror of life and love, that connects friends just as much as it connects lovers.
I'm a little leery about reading the new books.
I'm almost afraid they were only written for the sake of the show. If so, I want nothing to do with them. I only want them if their existence is due to the fact that Stefan and Elena and the gang truly weren't through with their escapades. I hope they aren't ridiculous.
Let's find out, shall we?
O and by the way, I saw on a certain website that some schmuck is trying to sell a 2001 edition of The Fury for $35. Whoever it is, they aren't a real fan.
I have the original print edition in like new condition. All four of the series. And sweetie, I ain't selling.

Vampire Diaries: The Fury

OMG.
As a rule, crying during teen romance novels is unacceptable behavior.
It almost happened though, almost but not quite.
Maybe it's because I got up so early. We'll blame it on that.

Thus far, The Fury is my favorite of the Vampire Diaries, which really should have all been one book...but what Stephenie Meyer can get away with today might not have flown so hot nearly twenty years ago (wow, let's not put it in those terms again!). The Fury is filled with awakenings and realizations and I was nervous for Elena and the gang, scared for them at times and then suddenly....my tiredness nearly allowed me to cry.
LJ Smith accomplishes what Meyer never did for me...she made me nervous. Yes, I've read the books time and again but every time that concern wells back up. I know these characters, they're old friends of mine and I want things to go well for them....but sometimes things just don't. And that is something else. LJ Smith is willing to allow her characters to go down paths that might be less than favorable. She is willing to shock and to let go.
It still makes me angry that these books were made into a television series (atrocious as it is).
They're making Outlander into a movie and The Vampire Diaries into a series. How backward is that?

At the end of the They Fury I ran back to my room, to my favorite shelf filled with old-school reads (which, I realized to my horror...I am missing a TON of my Christopher Pike books. Where did they go? Where is Chain Letter? And the Final Friends, hmmm? Ich weiss nicht.) and snatched Dark Reunion. Unfortunately, mommyhood duties called and it was time to feed the children. They are in bed now and I'm done talking to you, so now FINALLY I can get back to the gang.

New Moon~ The Movie

My husband is a flippin' comedian.
For my birthday he got me bookcases, 24 season 7 on DVD, and New Moon on DVD. Although I had told him I really just wanted video of him going up to the cashier and buying New Moon (maybe having 24 in his hands offset the embarrassment of buying a teenie romantic thriller), he failed to record the event.
Again, I think they did a tremendous job with the adaptation. Was it exact? NO. But it couldn't be. But Rosenberg was faithful again, finding the essence of the story and the characters, preserving the emotions from the book.
The first thing that struck me was the difference in color. Twilight was all cool blues and New Moon has more of a Rembrandt feel to it. Which was fine, the story's in a different place now. But what bothered me, and I don't know if it could be helped but everyone looked five years older. And I still hate Jasper's look and blatant over-doneness. That's probably not a word, but I'm using it anyway.
My absolute favorite part of the movie was Edward's appearance in the school parking lot, the morning of Bella's birthday. The laughter exploded from me as the music rose and, in slow motion and in step with the beat, Edward Cullen strode toward Bella Swan. It was so 80's, I just lost it. My husband, swallowing his manly pride, looked up to see what was so hilarious and I backed it up so he could partake of the hilarity. We had a good laugh.
What was with the extreme close-up of the Jacob-the-wolf's eye with Bella's reflection? That was so throwback and sentimentally squishy, stomach churning and somewhat depressing. And the first wolf scene was just corny and yea....
I found myself wondering if Chris Weitz, the director, had started his career off in music videos, what with the increased artsiness of New Moon. And I have to give props, where props are due...the scene where Bella is seated at her computer and it cross dissolves and she's sitting on the couch...that was awesome and took a lot of planning and skill to execute so well. This praise also extends to the garage scene with Jacob. It was not only brilliant editing and directing but also writing. It was a great way to show the passage of time (much better than spinning around a rocking chair) and to show the building of Bella and Jacob's friendship.
But it was all almost lost on me when Bella dived from the cliff and she's sinking and there's Edward, it was very Beatles'ish and belonged in a music video, not this movie.
My favorite character.....toss up. Either Jacob (yes, I am a member of team Jacob...although I do appreciate Edward's morals, Edward's just so boring and he's a vampire!) or Charlie. I love Billy Burke's portrayal of Bella's father. Excellent! He always makes me laugh.
Overall, New Moon was certainly an improvement over Twilight. Everyone seems to have grown as actors, there was more emotion and suspense, better pacing...but a lot of that has to do with Meyer's increased skills as a writer. I can see why teen girls get all overheated watching it. But I must say, I am looking forward to watching the documentary on Forks. That looks infinitely more interesting than either New Moon or Twilight.

Death of A Witch

The pages of Breaking Dawn barely had time to settle back into their spine before I picked up MC Beaton's Death of a Witch. While Beaton is also no Diana Gabaldon, she is MC Beaton which is far preferable to being Stephenie Meyer. Beaton creates vivid Scottish landscapes in the desperate places of my mind, places that long for travel and the harsh yet beautiful scenery of Scotland. Sometimes I wonder if I read her novels for the story or the scenery...it may be a toss up. Beyond that, I love her characters dearly as though I have known them all these years since I picked up my first Hamish MacBeth mystery.
They are simple reads, easily started and finished in a long, lazy day, but so entertaining. Beaton's work is the very definition of British cozy, making you want to curl up in a good, worn in chair with a blanket by a whispering fire with a cup of cocoa. I had put down her book at one point, when the sun finally shone through the dismal clouds of a windy Saturday morning and headed out to the garden. There wasn't much activity there but still the overwintered parsnips and onions and salsify give me a thrill of anticipatory excitement every time I spy their weed-like leaves hugging the cold, wet March soil. A few of the salsify had been sacrificed to discovery, I having not realized that some had made it through the winter and were beginning their growth anew.

As I sat on the chilled timbers of the bed, listening to the birds calling one another and claiming their territories the thoughts in my mind faded from the desire to go in and put on another layer, to the bonnie mountains and heathery moors of a Scotland I have never personally seen. My eyes scanned across our own land, with it's sharp hills and rocky creek beds, all crowded by tall skinny trees alive with chickadees and cardinals and a dozen other varieties of birds. In that moment I was overwhelmed with a love for our land. Our land. My family's land. And I began to wonder again about memories being passed down through genetics. Had my ancestors in Scotland had land of their own, land they loved? Had that love been passed down to me somehow, so that I crave going back? So that I would ignore my pride and my own selfish desires to preserve our family land here, the land where I had spent my years as a teenager and my children had spent most of their lives? During my time at Truman State I had been miserable, but when we came back to my parents', it was as though every atom in me settled back into the land and my soul whispered, "I have come home."
Perhaps that is why I love Beaton's Hamish MacBeth series so much, she takes me to Scotland with her. She brings to vivid color and even temperature, the nature of the Scottish landscape and it's people. I want to go back again and again. This is also what Gabaldon does, even more so, in her Outlander series and I never want to leave it.
Death of a Witch was good and engrossing and with some sadness I parted with dear old friends at the end, comforted in knowing that the shelf still holds another day of companionship not yet opened.

Praise and Hallelujah!

I have finished Breaking Dawn!
Someone give me a hanky! Tears of relief stream down my face.
The only thing that can nicely be said is that the end almost redeemed the entire book. There was restraint in the pacing, but I was neither surprised nor relieved by the ending. I just don't think Meyer has it in her. In her to what? I will not say, for those of you who have not wasted precious hours of your life such as I have. At least I can hold my head high and say I too know the fate of Edward and Bella Cullen. Whatever that's worth.
I couldn't handle anymore fairy tale cottages or lingering glances.....
Beyond Hallmark.
Stephenie Meyer is a writer of convenience. She continues to grow in skill, but as yet, she is no Diana Gabaldon. But who is? It's not really fair. I've been listening to Voyager by Gabaldon during my daily commute and everything else seems like bare bones writing compared to her.
More editing to do...and nothing new written.

Past The Breaking Point

Page 453.
Hasn't it ended yet?
There comes a point when you just have to let go.
When you keep pushing your story eventually it comes to a place where it's just ludicrous and you're beyond your own abilities .
The baby has been born and I am ready to call it quits on the whole thing.
Seriously, Meyer, let it go!
Breaking Dawn is way past its breaking point.
I wasn't stunned or shocked by the big revelation. Like with most things in this book I just found myself rolling my eyes and doing the mental math to see how many more pages are left to suffer through.
There comes a point when your story begins to detract from your talent.
There are other books I could be reading!
But, let's see what other nonsense goes on.
Are we just writing for the sake of a good box office finale? That's what it feels like. Like Thomas Harris's "Hannibal." It read like a flippin' screenplay.
My apologies. It was necessary to vent.

Busting up with Breaking Dawn

I started reading Breaking Dawn this afternoon.

And found a slip that made my day.

On the morning of the wedding Bella gets up and makes her dad pancakes....two paragraphs later he stares angrily into his cereal bowl?

It was like gold.

I'm easily amused.

Beyond that...well that will wait until the end, won't it?

Breaking Down over Breaking Dawn

Ok.

Several days have passed since I finished Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer.

It seemed a natural ending point to me.

And yet, now I must read Breaking Dawn. The book remains unopened. I haven't even been tempted.

The only curiosity that lingers is this: does Meyer improve again?

She said when she finished with Eclipse that she felt unable to let go of the story. Maybe that is because her characters were finally breaking out of the cardboard outlines which have confined them and stunted their growth. All except Edward, he's quite a static character. Nothing new there. Will he do anything to surprise us in Breaking Dawn? It's probably too much to ask for.

On a different note, I haven't written in many days. Priorities. My grades in stats and chem have been slipping. Unfortunately they both require enormous amounts of time. If only the language classes had fit into my schedule. So much easier and more fun.

Tonight, I will try to write.

It's a dangerous business, writer's not writing.

The voices of opposition ring more loudly when our muses begin to lose their voices due to neglect.

And I will read. Something. Maybe Breaking Dawn. Maybe not.

Thanks for no sleep Mrs. Meyer

Well heaven help me.

Eclipse is now gathering dust on my pile o'books beside our bed.

Something strange happened about halfway through Eclipse...I couldn't put it down. I was up until nearly 3 this morning, knowing that I would be getting up with my husband at 420 in order to see him off to work. (If I don't make him toast and coffee, who will? Him? Laughable!) When he left, just after 5, it was my intent to go back to sleep....well, maybe I would just read a few more pages.

I never did go back to bed.

All but one of the questions I expected to throw out as inconsistencies or sloppy writing, Meyer answered. All but one.

That one being: Why didn't Victoria just go around the other way? Why did she have to pass through the Quileutes'? Is there only one way for a vampire to get into Forks? Made no sense to me.

My emotions were so tormented through this whole experience.

First I just wanted her to go back to Jacob and then Edward was suddenly gaining some substance.

With Eclipse Stephenie Meyer has begun to master her craft.

Beyond the stupid selfishness of Bella and the amazing selfless and moral Edward and hotheaded Jacob, the most thrilling aspect for me was witnessing Stephenie Meyer truly step into her own as an author. Crap books sell all the time. They get some good marketing, develop a following and suddenly a mediocre author has a phenomenon with something that someone else had already done a decade before. Eclipse deserves its spot on the best seller's list.

Such amazing growth.

Well done Mrs. Meyer. Thank you for keeping me up so late.

Although, honestly, the story could end here and I would be okay with it.

There's still something not clicking. Edward, though gaining substance, still seems like a cardboard cut out to me. Actually a lot of it is that way for me...but it was so, so much better than Twilight or New Moon. Amazing leap.

Impatience: Red Box or Netflix?

Go ahead and laugh.

I'm trying to decided if it would be best to wait and get New Moon from Netflix or if it would be faster to try my luck with Red Box? And I will still have to mail back my current Netflix rentals and that would mean waiting for New Moon to arrive. Of course, more often than not, the videos I want from Red Box are gone by the time I get there and I wind up waiting anyway.

Strategy, folks. It's all about strategy.

My husband's laughing at me again.

Why?

1: Still haven't sent Twilight DVD back in. It's been weeks. It helps okay? On the days when the teenage novelist groove is hard to find, just takes poppin' in Twilight to get my muse infuriated.

2: I promptly bought Eclipse after finishing New Moon.

3. There's a bit of anticipation to see New Moon.

Despite warnings that he was going to be the end of my blogging career, he continues to laugh. Makes me so angry, which is why he does it. I am not in love with Bella and Edward. I actually find myself rooting for Jacob a bit. That's Meyer's fault, she put a lot more work in to make that relationship tantalizing and believable.

My main passion for them is curiosity about the author. Did she get better? Has she grown as a writer since the last novel?

I've only gotten through the first chapter of Eclipse and the growth is obvious. She's even gotten better about weaving in the mandatory recaps from the previous book. Now, the burning question is: How badly did they screw up the New Moon movie? Is it possible that they pulled off two amazingly faithful adaptations?

I still have some qualms with New Moon, beyond basic writing skills. Story issues. But I am getting cramped under my desk. Yes under my desk. Network cord isn't long enough. My real house has high-speed, wireless internet.

Leg Warmers and LJ SMith

Last night I hauled all of my teen novels out of storage.

Maybe not all, I seem to have misplaced some. Likely, they are in storage.

Again I was struck by the fact that just like leg warmers, the books of the late 80's/early 90's are finding themselves on the shelves again. And not just the shelves of used bookstores. They're sporting shiny new covers with trendy new cover art in the biggest retailers around. Personally, I prefer the old ones. There's something about the use of real people on the covers of the books that has always bothered me. If my stomach wasn't rolling around right now maybe I could figure out what that is.

After finishing the Twilight sage the first book to on my reread list is Christopher Pike's Fall Into Darkness always one of my favorites. It's so funny. After all these years, two decades in some cases, I can still remember the stories just by looking at the covers, and feel the emotions the skillful craft of Christopher Pike wrought in me. Granted, it will be different now as I am older and have lived through quite a bit. Although I am finding that the difficulties I have lived through actually help me connect with some of the stories I read..the difficulties and the most romantic and heartbreaking new beginning...The Lord has blessed me with a wonderful love story of my own. Some adults may laugh that I read teen novels but they shouldn't. My life could serve as inspiration for some of those "silly" novels. Fairytale romances, with all the strife and stupidity and horror and reunions, really do happen. But that's my tale to tell, one day.

Retro Books?

A Harry Potter Let Down

To continue with my earlier thread of thought....
Writing book reviews is a difficult task for me. I don't want to let on too terribly much for those who haven't read the book already (not that I have any delusions about the number of people who read my blog...but just in case someone happens to meander across my path).
I was digging New Moon. And then Edward came back and the story just kind of crumpled again. Everything happened too quickly and shallowly. It became trite and it felt like lines of dialogue had been copied and pasted from Twilight into New Moon. And I got so tired of her always screaming. Who screams that much? She would annoy me. Then Edward thought he was dead and she thought she was dead and she was certain she was dreaming....crazy, delusional writing. The biggest let down for me though (story-wise) was the Voice in Bella's head and the explanation for it in the end. I call this a "Harry Potter let down." Why? Because you wait and wait to find out what it is that makes Harry Potter special and you find out: Nothing. It's just that Voldemort went to the Potters' instead of going to the Longbottoms'. And Harry's mother loved him enough to throw herself in front of him. Apparently, love is all you need...to cop out of applying a little more imagination to your writing. Such a horrible disappointment. And I swear I just might start screaming if Robert Pattinson hasn't perfected his vampire growl in New Moon. Did he look a little confused, a little wimpish growling in Twilight? It was almost as painful to watch his snarl as it was to read some of the passages in Twilight and New Moon.
Confessions:
I bought Eclipse....and I was in a hurry to do so.
Bella's Lullaby is my current ringtone...shut up, it's a pretty song.
And I hope when he grows up, Bruce looks as suave and plays as nicely as "Edward."
I am looking forward to watching New Moon, curious to see how faithfully this one was adapted.

New Moon ~ Stephenie Meyer

Perhaps a better title for this entry would be "Foot-in-Mouth Disease," which I suffer from horribly.

I am trying to understand why people don't like New Moon.

Twilight was a struggle to read. I just didn't buy into it.

In the beginning, New Moon was worse. But then, something amazing happened. Stephenie Meyer hit her stride. She figured out to weave a story and pace it to tantalize the reader. Don't get me wrong, she's no Diana Gabaldon. She still has a long way to go, but she is going there. Maybe that was the most exciting thing about New Moon for me, seeing the growth of Meyer as an author. Some of the writing was still excruciating (like when Bella realizes she is the zombie) but some of it was so real (maybe because I have lived through similar romantic dramas?) that I was drawn in. She spent so much time developing the relationship between Bella and Jacob that I bought it and suddenly I was conflicted. I believed in their relationship more than I do Edward and Bella's.

Crap, I will have to finish this later. Class time.

Anyway, props to Stephenie Meyer for an amazing show of growth.

New Moon Shocker

Last night was one of those nights.
My body wasn't tired but my brain was exhausted. As such, I couldna sleep. (Listening to Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Galbadon brings out the Scot in me....Glasgow, Illinois was actually started by my great, great, great, great something grandfather...Edward McGlasson? My mother's maiden name is McGlasson.) Anyway, this imbalance put me in a precarious spot. I was awake, but not really. It was one of those moments when all you really have the strength to do is sit there and stare blankly at the wall. Feeling that catatonic stares would be a great waste of time, I picked up New Moon by Stephenie Meyer. (Given to me by a wonderful Christian girl.) I am only halfway through now, but I believe my review will shock you. But, we will wait until the end to see.
I must go tend to my sick child now, but had to take a moment to share this startling tidbit with you.

Falling In Love

It has not been love at first thought between my characters and I.

Stephenie Meyer says she was in love with Edward from the very beginning. That has not been the case between William and I. I don't really know him well enough for all that. Truth is, I haven't really plotted William and Katherine out in great detail. They are revealing themselves as the story progresses and this weekend, whispers of passion began to stir. William and Katherine are starting to take hold of me. It's like when you're reading an awesome novel and you don't want to quit because you just want to stay there with those characters....Yea, it was like that and it was amazing.

Who are Katherine and William? I will not tell.

But here's an inconsequential peek:

"In their uncertainty, they chose silence. Katherine turned back to the darkness of the grounds, leaning against the balustrade for support. William stood stoically beside her, gazing at nothing, studying his own bewildered thoughts."

(c)Gwenn Wright 2010

The Avoidance of Being Trite

Work on my new novel has begun in earnest. I say "new" as if there is an old novel of mine out there and people are breathlessly awaiting my next stunning work.

No.

New just means that this is the first time since high school that I have written more than...3 pages consecutively.

I am now the proud author of seventeen pages! Woot woot!

It's ridiculous I know.

My first novel was completed my junior year of high school. Piece of trash, that. But it was good practice. It kept me out of trouble.

My friend, who is forever debating with me over the Twlight v. Vampire Diaries, heard from my own lips that I am writing again.

"What is it about!" She asked, her eyes lit up as though she were meeting Robert Pattinson himself. (I do appreciate her enthusiasm for my contrived efforts.) "Is it about vampires?"

No. No it is not.

That story has been beaten into the ground to the point of humiliation.

Can teen novelists jump off the vampire band wagon and find a new way to spin a suspenseful romance?

This is my mission.

I didn't intend to begin a mission. It started with the comparison of Twilight and the Vampire Diaries, the love stories that hold them together. Then I got to thinking about Jane Austen's Mr. Darcy and Nate in Elizabeth George Spear's The Witch of Blackbird Pond. What was it about these characters and these love stories that possessed my soul to the point that I mourned when the story drew to a close?

Before I knew it, there were characters walking around in my head, kicking and demanding to be set free.

It has been all the difference.

Ever since high school I have tried to write, to pull the words out and make them come to life for me. I've had fantastic ideas and wonderful plots, but none of them were living and breathing (so to speak).

And now, in my most academically rigorous semester when I am still trying to decide on an internship and a career and film a mini-doc....there are characters breathing inside my thoughts. If too many days go by without giving them air I start to become depressed and impatient and generally unfriendly. Writing them out is like gasping in wonderful, reviving air after being smothered under a pillow of practicality. The characters are even doing things I haven't planned and didn't intend.

And it's all working out wonderfully.

Now let's just see if I can keep it up.

Simply put,

My story is not about vampires.

It is about love.

It is a bit gritty and a bit fru-fru.

The heroine is not Isabella Swan or Elena Gilbert.

And I am so very happy to be back doing that one thing that has always brought me fulfillment ever since I wrote my first poem in kindergarten...my first love: writing.

And may I just say, thank you dear husband of mine, for giving the strangers in my head room to breathe and loving me even as my flakes begin to show.