I'm Reading Ivory & Bone by Julie Eshbaugh And...

“"Walk three miles in all that dirt? You won’t be fit to be seen!”

“I shall be fit to see Jane, which is all I want.”

It’s not a point-for-point adaptation, but I totally see it. And we have now come to the moment when Jane goes to visit Bingley and gets sick and Lizzy goes to take care of her. :)

How Long Does It Take Me to Read a Book?

Depends on the book. As an example, I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in about 5 hours on a trip to Disney World when I was 11. I read one of those old early 90s RL Stine Fear Street books in about 2 hours when I was maybe 8 years old (I remember because we were visiting my grandparents and my grandma bought me a whole big bag of Fear Street; I read the first one in about 2 hours and my mom was like, “Those have to last you, you know?” And my grandma was like, “No, I’ll take her back if she manages to finish them all before you go home”).

But now I have a job and bills to pay and writing to do. And even then, it depends on the book. I read the entire Raven Cycle in approximately a week if you subtract the time it took for the books to arrive. I read A Court of Mist and Fury in less than 30 hours and it’s 622 pages long (and I had to take notes because it was a library book). I read Throne of Glass in about the same amount of time even though it’s 200 pages shorter.

But I’ve also been working through Delusion’s Master for the last 2 months and it’s maybe ¼ the size of ACOMAF. I’ve had to start, stop, and restart Eye of the World at least six times (I finally caved and bought the audiobook). I read The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in less than a day but took several months to get through The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland.

It just depends.

Weekend Update with LA Knight

So...not much to report. I've got:

HOUSE OF GEARS

- 1 partial (since mid-June)
- 2 fulls (been out since May 8)
- several queries

EIDOLON

- 2 fulls (since beginning/early middle of June)
- several queries

I'm going to be able to update Once Upon a Time, yay!

And I found out something sad. Diana Gabaldon doesn't like fanfiction authors. In fact, she compared us to husband-stealers and drugs addicts. :(  I love Outlander so double-ouch.

FINALLY FINISHED THE WISHING SPELL!
Loved Chris Colfer's debut fairytale for MG. Only issues I had w/ it, honestly, were 2 things.

A) Sometimes (like, maybe 3x) the prose suddenly skews adult-ish but in hokey romantic way, talking about passionate kisses and whatnot and I was kind of like, "Um..." but it wasn't a huge deal.

B) Biggest issue - the MC, Alex, is a bit of a fairytale snob. She talks about how peeps are awful because they don't know the original fairytales (there was a thinly-veiled slam on one of the Cinderella Story films, I think the third one). My only issue w/ this is that Alex is a bit of an H-word (*cough* hypocrite *cough*) because SHE doesn't even know the original versions of some of these stories. Like that Sleeping Beauty had babies because the prince knocked her up while she was out, or that Cinderella had no fairy godmother, or that the Little Mermaid risked death but did not, in fact, die. About 20% of the time I wanted to be like, "Pipe down, child."

Aand I finally got my bestie to read The Hunger Games. Actually, I didn't. Tumblr did. Thank you, Tumblr.

What I've Been Up To Lately

So just wanted to check in and give an accounting of myself on my blog. What have I been doing since last time I posted one of these? Lots of stuff!

 

In Regular Life:

 

- Got a molar ripped out. Took more than a week to recover.

- Got sick twice. Fun times.

- Figured out the perfect way to get slime on Rice-a-Roni (which sounds gross, but it's actually not; 3 tablespoons of butter is the key)

- Had my first Pepsi in like, a month or more

- Weeded my mom's front and back yards (with IK Scott's and LD Claw's help)

- Swept, vacuumed and washed my mom's kitchen floor

- Helped prune the tree in my parents' front yard (also with IK Scott's and LD Claw's help; my hands were killing me by the end. Stupid dull pruning sheers)

- Signed up to be a beta to two fanfic authors I adore

- Memorized the words to "Hunter" by Heather Dale

- Pined pathetically for Lorien to come back

 

Reading:

 

Oh, gosh, what books have I been reading? Let's make a list of ones I've finished, then go on to the ones I'm currently reading. Right now, I'm on a Pride and Prejudice kick. Don't ask me to explain it. Hopefully I'll get over it quickly. Not that I don't love Jane Austen, 'cause I do.

 

- Mr. Darcy's Undoing by Abigail Reynolds

- Mr. Darcy's Obsession by Abigail Reynolds

- Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man on Earth by Abigail Reynolds (read this one three times)

- Impulse and Initiative by Abigail Reynolds

- Mr. Darcy, Vampyre by Amanda Grange (wish I hadn't read that one; stupid ending)

- Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll (fourth or fifth time reading it)

- Crossed by Allie Condie

- Enshadowed by Kelly Creagh (oooh, cliffhangers! She is evil! But so very clever)

- Masque of the Red Death by Bethany Griffin

 

(currently reading)

 

- Inheritence by Christopher Paolini (I gotta know what happens)

- Celebrity in Death by JD Robb

- Mr. Darcy's Bite by Mary Lydon Simonsen

- Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

- Redoubt by Mercedes Lackey

- The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury (reading it again; love this book)

- Mr. Darcy's Diary by Amanda Grange

- The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel (I've never managed to read this all the way through ever)

 

Writing:

 

And what have I written since last I posted one of these blogs? Teehee.

 

- I Hear the Bones Singing, chapter 2 - "Kind Eyes"

- Obsidian, chapter 5 - "The Queen of Clubs"

- Obsidian, chapter 6 - "First Time Down the Rabbit Hole"

- Obsidian, chapter 7 - "The King's Allegiance"

- Obsidian, chapter 8 - "The White Queen's Punishment"

- Obsidian, chapter 9 - "Flesh, Blood, and Low-Fat Milk"

- Obsidian, chapter 10 - "Beware the Jubjub Bird"

- Obsidian, chapter 11 - "Of Mice and Men"

- Obsidian, chapter 12 - "Smoke from a Caterpillar"

- Obsidian, chapter 13 - "Alyssa's Bane"

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 76 - "There's No Comfort in the Truth"

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 77 - "Just a Kiss"

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 78 - "Shed One Bitter Tear"

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 79 - "Birthday (Pt. 1)"

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 80 - "Birthday (Pt. 2)"

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 81 - "Birthday (Pt. 3)"

- Once Upon a Time: Utopia (a "Once Upon a Time" variation)

- The Shepherd's Daughter, chapter 13 - "The Synyd Plains"

- Snow White, Blood Red, chapter 5 - "Kinship"

 

Maybe I should do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month or something like that) where you have to write an entire novel in one month. It's a national thing. I could probably do it. The question is, do I want to? *ponders* Yeah, I totally do. If I can finish Obsidian before November, maybe I can start something else. Not Garnet. I'll need to take a break after busting out Obsidian. Anyway, but those are the chapters I've already written. Here are the chapters I'm currently in the middle of as of writing this blog.

 

- Grimcat, chapter 1 (needs to be rewritten)

- I Hear the Bones Singing, chapter 3

- Obsidian, chapter 14

- Once Upon a Time, chapter 82

- The Shepherd's Daughter, chapter 14 - "Beneath the Desert Sun"

- Snow White, Blood Red, chapter 6

 

Editing:

 

- Edited chapter 14 of Once Upon a Time (only minor edits)

- Edited chapter 22 of Once Upon a Time (only minor edits)

- Edited chapter 29 of Once Upon a Time (only minor edits)

- Edited chapter 42 of Once Upon a Time (only minor edits)

- Edited chapter 56 of Once Upon a Time (only minor edits)

- Edited chapter 62 of Once Upon a Time (only minor edits)

- Edited chapter 80 of Once Upon a Time (Lorien's edits)

- Edited chapter 6 of Obsidian (Lorien's edits)

 

Movies:

 

I watch movies when I'm too sick to do anything else. That was me for the first 10 days after I got my tooth pulled (after I recovered from not sleeping hardly at all for 3 days). So I watched a whole bunch of movies with IK Scott.

 

- Buddy

- Disney's the Rescuers Down Under

- Disney's Lady and the Tramp

- Free Willy (I'd never seen it before)

- The Goonies (never seen that one before, either)

- The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus (I know it was only September, shush)

- Pretty in Pink

- The Secret Garden (1993 version)

 

Research:

 

- Looked up various symptoms and treatments of pneumonia

- Learned all about equine anatomy, stabling, and early development

- Looked up a bit about reptilian reproduction

- Learned how to spell a few new words

- Read about various faeries (not unusual for me)

- Studied the lynx to supplement the faerie stuff

My Last 2 Weeks

Okay, this time I'm doing a "what I did in the last two weeks" because I forgot to do my weekly one and my concept of time is a bit muddled. So this is what I did, work-wise, in the last 13-15 days (basically, since my last post on what I did with myself).

Writing

- Wrote a really long extension to a scene for Once Upon a Time chapter 73

- Wrote a whole new scene for Once Upon a Time chapter 74

- Wrote chapter 75 of Once Upon a Time

- In short, wrote 47,300 words (in 2 weeks)

- Posted chapter 72 of Once Upon a Time (thus requiring me to edit 73 when I started getting questions about the MC's mental state)

- Posted chapter 73 of Once Upon a Time (due to reader responses)

- Posted chapter 74 of Once Upon a Time (same as chapter 73)

- Started writing chapter 1 of I Hear the Bones Singing

Editing

- Super-edited chapter 73 of Once Upon a Time (adding at least 9,000 more words)

- Edited chapter 74 of Once Upon a Time (4 times! Including adding a new scene and revamping two other scenes - twice!)

- Started formatting Glass for upload to Smashwords

- Started formatting Their Forever Family for upload to Smashwords

- Revised my giant list of character bios

- Edited chapter 11 of The Shepherd's Daughter

- Edited chapter 12 of The Shepherd's Daughter

- Edited the prologue of I Hear the Bones Singing

Critiquing (aka editing or reviewing other people)

- Edited chapter 22 of Warrior by the awesome Whisper on the Wind

- Edited 3 pieces by another online writer

Reading

- Read A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

- Read the first 3 volumes of Black Butler

- Started reading Rebel Angels, sequel to A Great and Terrible Beauty

- Started rereading Matched by Ally Condie (woman has a way with words, yo)

- Started reading Mastiff by Tamora Pierce

- Started reading Crossed by Ally Condie

- Started reading Clan of the Cave Bear (I've picked it up, read 10 pages, put it down, and picked it up a bazillion times since 10th grade)

- Went on the prowl for possible new books that might be amazing (Reached by Ally Condie and Sever by Lauren Destefano are coming out soon!)

- Discovered (to my horror) that the book Enclave has a bloody sequel

Other Stuff

- Answered my fanmail

- Went to church

- Made a playlist for Lorien for when she comes over to read

- Did a Google search for Literary Agents and their current 2012 wishlists

- Nagged Lorien for chapter 23 of Warrior

- Did the dishes for my mom

- Talked to the brilliant WhenNightmaresWalked on Facebook about literature and my own works (she gives awesome critiques)

- Google-searched 7 literary agent wishlists for 2012