Thursday, August 18, 2011

Three more chapters to go before the completion of Bandit, confusion on what I want

I was supposed to do this entry sooner but I’ve been too busy writing and reading books that provided me with great ideas on how to improve the novel I’m working on. I just recently read a very old book called The vampire Memoirs by Mara Mccuniff (who just so happens to be the main character of the book) and Traci Briery (the author herself). The book is about Mara’s incredible journey from the time she was born back in the 4th century (in case you’re wondering, she was born and raised in Britain and had a father that wasn’t very kind to her half of the time) to how she landed in Los Angeles. It tells the story of how Mara became the human daughter, wife, and mother that the readers adored to the smart and slightly nieve vampire the readers basically feels sorry for.

In the book, Mara turns into a vampire unwillingly by a slime ball of a master who been roaming around the earth, killing innocent women and turning them into slaves for years. After the master (I think his name was Arygar) kills Mara’s husband during a special dinner event (I can’t think of what it was exactly but it had something to do with politics), Arygar takes it upon himself to bite Mara and turn her into his vampire bride forever…without her consent. Despite his attempts to swoon Mara into making love to him, All Mara wants to do is escape and that’s exactly what she does.

I’m going to stop there because I don’t want to give too much away even though the book is out of print. There might still be a way to read it at your local library if it’s possible. Besides, there are other things on my mind right now besides talking about the vampire memoirs. I’ve always dealt with this problem every time I’m getting closer to finishing a manuscript. I always write in one particular genre the whole way through whenever I’m writing. For awhile, focusing on one manuscript at a time worked for me but now I want to tackle another idea…in a different genre. I always hate it when this happens because I feel like if I tackle a new genre and start working on another project that I’ll be abandoning the previous project I’m working on.

Don’t get me wrong, I know form the bottom of my soul that I’m going to finish my first book for the Truson Super Elite Team series (three more chapters left to go? C’mon!) and I’m even working on the outline for the second book of the series but I can’t help but wonder what could happen if I spread my wings and tried to do something in a different genre. Who knows? If my YA novel doesn’t work out, I may have a future in another genre (By the way, I’ve decided NOT to disclose this information on which genre I want to attack for fear I might not go through with it if I do).

Overall, I’m going to stick with my original plan of writing YA but if that doesn’t work out, wouldn’t it be best to try something else just in case things don’t go as planned?

Sigh. Shrug.

Dominique


Sunday, July 31, 2011

Words from twilight, five more chapters to go

Title: Words from Twilight

31. Gruffer - Having a rough or brusque manner, voice, or countenance; harsh; surly.

32. Obstinately -Persistently and unreasonably resolved in a purpose or opinion; stubborn. Hard to control or cure.

33. Vehemently - Arising from or marked by impetiously of feeling or passion; ardent. Acting with great force or energy; energetic; violent; furious.

34. Ogle- to look at with admiring or impertinent glances. To stare at; to look at. To look or stare in an admiring or impertinent manner. An amorous or coquettish look.

35. Defiantly - Showing or characterized by defiance. The act of defying; a challenge. Bold opposition; disposition to oppose or resist; contemptuous disregard of authority or opposition.

36. Derision - The act of deriding; ridicule; mockery; scornful laughter. An object of ridicule or scorn.

37. Sullenly - Obstinately and gloomily ill-humored; morose; glum. Depressing; somber; slow; sluggish; melancholy Ill-omened; threatening.

38. Converge - to cause to tend toward one point. To move toward one point; come together in gradual approach. To tend toward the same conclusion or result.

39. Gratuitous - Given freely without claim or consideration; voluntary. Without cause, provocation or warrant; uncalled for; unnecessary.

40. Warily - marked by keen caution, cunning, and watchfulness especially in detecting and escaping danger.

FIVE MORE CHAPTERS TO GO BEFORE THE REWRITE OF BANDIT IS FINISHED. YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dominique

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Chapter Nine of Bandit, the next ten words from Twilight, Bet Me

Entry: I’m not going to take up too much time today because I need to focus on my writing. I wish I could say that there’s something exciting going on in my life right now but I can’t. Well, maybe that I’m on chapter nine of my new rewritten novel Bandit.

Oh and that I’m reading again. I just read an old book I bought from a book giveaway at Columbia College Chicago. It’s called Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise. I won’t go too much into detail about it right now because of how late it is but it’s basically a single-title romance and a women’s fiction book all rolled into one. The romance starts when one of the main characters (Calvin Morrisey) goes out on a date with a woman in a checked suit (Minerva Dobbs) on a bet for ten thousand dollars. After they go through with the date, Calvin and Minerva vow to stay away from each other until unusual circumstances forces them back into each other’s company. In the end, they realize that no matter how hard they try, they just can’t stay away from each other.

The reason why I say it’s a women’s fiction book is because the story doesn’t just center on Calvin and Minerva, it centers around their friends as well. Minerva’s friends ends up hooking up with Calvin’s friends which gives the book a very entertaining and enthusiastic read for people who want more out of the romance than just the hero and heroine. I love this book so much that I’m thinking about doing a couple of journal entries on what I observed throughout the book in terms of romance, dialogue, the sexual tension between the hero and heroine, the whole nine yards. But first, Twilight.

Which reminds me: Here are the next ten words from Twilight. Enjoy:

21. Disheveled - Disarrange; to disorder

22. Grimaced - A distortion of the features, either habitual or occasioned by annoyance, disgust, contempt, etc.

23. Cursorily - Rapid and superficial; hasty.

24. Inexplicable - Not explicable: impossible to explain; inexplainable

25. Surmised - To infer on slight evidence; guess. To make a conjecture. A conjecture made on slight evidence; supposition.

26. Appraising - to make an official valuation of; set a price or value on, especially by authority of law or agreement of interested parties. To estimate the amount, quality, or worth of; Judge.

27. Chivalrously - Having the qualities of the ideal knight; gallant, courteous, generous, brave etc. pertaining to the feudal system of chivalry.

28. Peripheral - of or pertaining to a periphery. Distant from the center; hence, distal; external.

29. Gratingly - (1) A grate. An optical device for the dispersion of light waves and the production of spectra, visually consisting of a series of very fine parallel grooves cut in the surface of polished metal or glass, sometimes of a suitably mounted crystal. (2) Harsh in sound; rasping; irritating - the act of rasping.

30. Providentially - Exercising foresight; economical; anticipating and making ready for future wants or emergencies.

I’ll probably do another journal entry before the end of the month. Until then, Buenos Noches.

Dominique

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Articles on rewrites, self-publishing and Bandit

Hello,

I've decided not to talk about my personal life since they have deemed it 'unprofessional' to talk about your whole entire life on a blog. I'll try my best to listen to the rules they state about being a professional on the blog but I have to admit that it won't be easy.

Onto the writing news.

I just recently browsed these two great blogs today and found a lot of fascinating stuff that makes my head spin. The first one I discovered was an entry about self-publishing. Authors are taking over the self-publishing world by taking control of their own destiny and getting paid huge amounts of dollars for it. They're being noticed by major publishers and literary agents based on thier marketing abilites.

Bummer.

I remember the days when self-publishing wasn't in the traditional book publishers category. There were exceptions true enough (Eragon, Virgina woolf, Rudyard Kilping) but overall, literary agents and publishers forwned whenver you mentioned the word 'self-publishing' in your query letter (I think they still do) but now it seems like an everyday norm. Makes me want to think twice about going the traditional route of how to publish my book. I mean, if I have to promote my book myself, I might as well pay hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars to get it published right?
Who knows? If I try to self-publish it for hundreds of dollars and promote it (Provided that I get a book doctor to look at my inconsisent mistakes I keep making in my novel) I may make more money on the other side of the equation.

If you want more information on this article, you can find it here. Speaking of articles, I found another website that focuses on the one subject I'm currently doing right now with 'Bandit': Rewrites. You can find the article here

Make sure you check out the websites. I think it could be good for your writing career.

Dominique

Friday, May 27, 2011

One chapter down, nine more chapters to go, Master degree in elementary education

HELLO,

After everything I tried to do over the last couple of weeks, I managed not to do much work this week and I still can't understand why. I wrote and re-wrote chapter six of my novel and now here I am, reading it over again knowing that it won't be perfect from my point-of-view. It's crazy. But I'm going to keep plowing through the first five chapters by re-reading over again so I'll know my story will stay consisent with what I'm working on so far. I'll just have to remember to slow the scenes down for the rest of my book.

I thought I could write my whole entry today but I'm getting so sleepy it's ridiculous. I can't function like this. My eyes are drooping and my body feels like it's gong to collapse so I'm going to end this really short and say good-night to this entry and continue it some other time.

Dominique

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

It's over, Bandit, and writing in multiple genres

Hello, everyone:

I know, I suck at this whole blog thing but I've been really busy with finals and getting my grades together for the spring semester. This is actually the first week of me being at home all day since I don't know how long and I'm starting to get really lazy and bored. Can you believe that??? I can. Anyways, I'm still working on Bandit. I'm even thinking about rewriting my second book 'Addicted' so that it could at least be halfway done when I go back to school. I don't know what the future holds for me but one thing's for sure: I'm not going to give up writing my novels. As a matter of fact, I'm even thinking about writing in multiple genres this summer in case I don't make it as a YA author (Right now, my goal is to be a YA/middle grade author and from the way my books are going, it looks like I'm going to try my very best to achieve that goal for awhile before I switch to another genre).

There are so many things I have to do that it's driving me crazy. I have to continue finishing up Twilight and type up all of my journal entries to my blog to let the rest of the world know how my creative process works whenver I read and reread a book to improve my writing. I know, I know, I've been behind on a lot of things but going to the same class twice a week can do that to you! Anyways, I also planned on posting some short stories on my blog so that people can view it and post thier comments on my page. Better yet, I can post my short stories for literary agents to see as well. Like I said, so many ideas, so little time.

On top of everything else, I've come to a decision about my other future after I graduate for my community college in chicago. I've decided to go forward with my plans on becoming a special needs teacher. Two years from now, I will offically graduate with an A.A. in Early Childhood Education and go for my master's in special education so I'll be able to inspire kids with special needs that their disability shouldn't stop them from what they want to do in life.

Well, I have to get going. I'm already too far behind as it is. See ya.

Dominique

Friday, April 1, 2011

Bandit, a second job and being a full-time student

Hello everyone. I know it's been awahile since I've wrote but a lot of things have been on my mind. I'm still working in Bandit. I'm in the process of rewriting it as we speak. Despite my efforts, I've only managed to write six chapters out of the whole book and there's still nine more chapters to go before I could declare it a finished novel (For a total of fifteen chapters). But I don't even know if writing this book is a possiblity now because of my current schedule.

At first, I was just writing my book and going to school. I was starting to like that idea because I felt as if I was able to have some free time to write my book and do my homework while the financial aid I applied for would help pay the bills. Unfortunately, that's no longer the case. Since my financial situation hasn't changed since 2009, I have no other choice but to get me a part-time job while I'm in school. I don't know how this is supposed to work considering the classes are twice a week. And I have no other choice but to go full-time because I'm going to need financial aid to pay for my expenses (tution, books, fees, etc).

I just don't know if it's worth it anymore.

I simply went back to school so I could get my A.A. in early childhodd education and then find a job. Now, I can't even do that anymore. I feel like nothing I have done within the last few years of my life were useless. I tried to get a substitute teaching certificate so I could be a substitute teacher in chicago. That didn't work. I tried applying for jobs on careerbuilder, that didn't work. Itried to publish my book to multiple literary agents, that didn't work. I tried to focus on going back to school full-time so I wouldn't have to get a job while I was in school, that didn't work.

The only thing that seems to work right now is to quit school and focus on getting a job...for the second time!

I just can't deal with the pressure she's putting on me. It's too much for me. All I want to do is write, send my manuscript, find a literary agent to fall in love with my work, rewrite it again to it's full potential, find a publisher that loves my work, rewrite it again and let it get published two years from now.

And maybe work on trying to get a master's degree in my field: Creative writing. That way, I could teach at Columbia college and not have to worry about searching for another job ever again in life. I think I would have been better off if I would have applied at Columbia for the fall then what I'm going through now. I am miserable and there's nothing I can do about it at this point. All I can do is do my homework and write as much as possible before my huge transition from writer/schoolgirl to schoolgirl/working girl with the writing as a backburner.

Dominique

Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine's Day, still writing Bandit, tests in classes

Hi, I'm back again. I know that at this point, I should be posting journal entries about what I noticed in twilight from the first ten chapters but It's been really, really, hard to do that considering all the exams and tests that I'm either studying for or making a study guide to study from. Right now, I'm supposed to be studying for a test I have on Tuesday in one of my classes but I've been studying for it for three weeks now and I'm ready to take it and move on.

If we don't take this test on tuesday about prenatal development and the feamle gential tract, I'm thinking about taking it on Wednesday after one of my classes is over with so I'll be able to study for the mid-term in my other classes (Which is the week of March 16th). I'll also be able to go back to my YA paranormal novel without feeling guility about studying for a test. I managed to write a little bit over the weekend but I feel like that's not enough for me since I'm almost finished with the third rewrite of chapter four and still can't write anything because of the test.

Sigh. I miss Columbia College Chicago. When I was majoring in Fiction writing, I did a lot of writing and recalling without having to worry about mid-terms or finals. I could write journal entries and stories that was pertaining to the passion I had ever since I was a little girl: Writing books. And if I just so happened to write something that was outside the normal range (Provided that I did all of my homework) then that was fine too. Now I can't even do that anymore. I miss the once a week classes too. The college I'm going to has classes twice a week and it's not even in my major. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to pass this semester woth flying colors.

Dominique

P.S. Happy Valentine's day

Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Biggest Snowstorm of the Century, still working on Bandit, tests

Hi everyone, I haven't been blogging because of my busy life of classes, quizzes, homework, and tests at my community college in Chicago. Luckily, I was able to take two days off of my classes because of the blizzard of 2011. Although I don't have to think about studying until later on today (or tommorrow depending on my mood), the bad news out of all this was I had to shovel the 20.2-20.9 inches of snow that buried me inside my house which I'm not too happy about at all.

Yes, you heard right. 20.2 inches. I'm sore all over and never want to go through this horrible experience again.

While I was shoveling my front porch and sidewalk, I couldn't help but come up with some ideas for my next novel of the Truson S.E.T. series. I'm not going to go into too much detail about it because I don't want to give too much away but I know it will have something to do with two of my main characters becoming trapped in a huge snowstorm that can barely get out of.

That's it, that's all I'm saying.

I would love to stay and chit-chat about twilight and other stuff but that's going to have to wait until I get these quizzes out of the way. See ya.

Dominique

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Sleepy and tired from school, still doing Bandit

Hi, everyone. I'm sorry but I'm afraid my entry will be short. Extremely Short. I started my first week of classes for Early Childhood Education at my local community college and I'm alreay swamped with schoolwork. I thought I could complete it all by Sunday but from the way things are looking, I'll be luckily to give half of it done by tomorrow. I thought I could get it all done so I can focus on my writing but even that's an uphill battle right now.

I don't know how I'm going to pursue my dreams, do homework, and do work-study all at the same time. I'm thinking about working part-time since I need the money to pay bills. The stress of it all makes me want to cry. I can't handle this pressure. I need a job NOW so I'll be able to be on my own. Maybe I need to talk to somsone about what I'm going through. I don't know. All I know is that I feel overwhelmed.

And this is just the first week of class...

Dominique

P.S. I'll probably post some more wrods from twilight whenever I'm free to do so.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Working on Bandit, Twilight words, being a teacher's aide for special needs kids

Happy new year to all! I’m sorry I haven’t been in contact with this blog for the last couple of weeks but I’ve been busy. Not only am I still working on my YA paranormal romance ‘Bandit’, I’ve been trying for the last couple of weeks to enroll in classes full-time at my local community college for Early Childhood Education. Since I haven’t been able to find a job within the last two years of my life, I’ve decided to go back to school to be a paraprofessional (Teacher’s aide) for special needs kids. I’ve always wanted to work with children ever since I taught creative writing at a catholic school back in the summer of 2008. Since I’m going back to school two weeks from now, it’s going to be a lot harder for me to finish my novel.

But by all means, I don’t care what I have to do, it will get done.

Another thing I have been scaling back on is the research on Twilight. To tell you the truth, I’m sick of hearing the word twilight. Everywhere I turn, it seems like vampires have now taken hold on the whole YA genre altogether and I for once had about enough of it. It’s a brand new year which means it’s time to talk about brand new subjects within the YA and romance community. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed the whole twilight saga thing as well but I think it’s time to move on, which is why I’m trying my very best to write down as much journal entries I can so I can post them here and get it over with. I’m at least halfway done with the first book and I can guarantee you that it will be a LOOOONG time before I post some more journal entries on new moon, eclipse, and breaking dawn. The next book I’m thinking about reviewing is Tangerine by Edward Bloor. I heard that a lot of agents want more YA novels from a boy’s POV (Or maybe that’s middle-grade, I’m not sure) and I think that Tangerine is a perfect example on how a boy character should be written.

Besides, I’ve always wanted to experiment with my writing when it comes to the opposite sex. The only problem is every time I try to write from a male’s POV, I always end up sounding too feminine! Then I wind up hating myself for trying it in the first place…

You get the picture.

Anyways, there’s nothing left for me to say except give you the next ten words I got from Twilight that I’m thinking about using (or have already used) in my manuscript. Enjoy!

Dominique

P.S. UPDATE: The same process I have been doing with chapter one of Bandit has worked for chapter two. I’m now working on the third and fourth rewrite of chapter three which equals twelve more chapters to go! WOOHOO!


Statuesque - resembling a statue, as in grace, pose, or dignity.

Surreptitiously - accomplished by a secret or improper names: Clandestine. Acting secretly or by stealth.

Meekly - of gentle and long-suffering disposition. Submissive; compliant; lacking spirit or backbone. Humble; lowly. Gentle; indulgent; kind; compassionate.

Opaque - Impervious to light; not translucent. Loosely, imperfectly transparent. Impervious to reason; unintelligent. Imperious to radiant heat, electric radiation etc. having no luster; dull. Unintelligible; obscure; dark; lying in shadow.

Warily - marked by keen caution, cunning, and watchfulness, especially in detecting and escaping danger.

Lapsed - to pass slowly or by degrees; slip; sink; to lapse into a coma. To deviate from virtue or truth; fall in duty or accuracy. To pass or elapse, as time. To become void, usually by disuse or neglect.

Suppress - To put an end or stop to; quell, crush as a rebellion. To stop or prohibit the activities of, as a rival political group; abolish. To withhold from knowledge or publication as a book, news, etc. To repress as a groan or sigh. To stop (a hemorrhage etc.)

Incredulously - Refusing belief; skeptical. Characterized by, caused by, or manifesting doubt. Incredible.

Saturated - Completely satisfied; replete; incapable of holding more of a substance or material; a saturated vapor.

Contemplating - To look at attentively; gaze at. To consider thoughtfully; ponder. To intend or plan. To treat of as contingent or possible. To meditate; muse.