MC blogfest

About the Blogfest:
1. pretend to be one of your main characters (have them write the post)
2. have them answer 3 questions (the questions are listed on the announcement post)
The questions are:
- What is your greatest fear?
- What is your biggest accomplishment?
- What is your biggest regret?
3. Post it and then go check out other entries.

As for my entry, I will leave that up to the characters. Yep, plural. I am giving Noah and Elijah the rest of the blog post. Noah is often posting over on The Character Cafe, though both blog there. He is from the adult mutant series. Elijah is an angel main character from the angel/demon novel.

My Entry:

Noah: Hello blog readers. Nice to see you again Elijah.

Elijah: Yeah, Hi. So... what are we doing on this one? It's not the same place we posted our conversation last time, is it?

Noah: No, this is Dawn's personal writing blog. The one we did the little secret sharing topic was on some group blog. Don't worry. I think this time we can be a little less personal.

Elijah: Good. Last time we talked it was a little too soul bearing. Don't think I can do it again this soon. Tonight we have questions?

Noah: *hands over a piece of paper* Yes, these are the questions. We'll both give answers, taking turns asking the questions. Do you want to ask first this time?

Elijah: *stares at the paper* I guess I can. Questions 1: What is your greatest fear?

Noah: Of course, that had to be the first question. Okay. Fine. I've talked about this a few times but one of my worst fears is to be used as a weapon.

Elijah: What do you mean?

Noah: The mutation I have is more powerful than most. Well, I was expected to have more power but no one really knows because I pretend I can't do all the tests. It's better that not many people know what I can actually do. Since I control energy, I can even create it and that could be used as a weapon to harm others. I really don't want to hurt anyone.

Elijah: Could it be that you fear hurting people?

Noah: Probably. I mean, I know people say that they don't intend or want to hurt anyone emotionally and I know I have hurt people before without meaning to but this is different. I could unintentionally kill someone, I don't even have to know them. If they are in the wrong place and I go off with my powers then bad things happen. I can't stand the idea of it. It would haunt me forever if something like that happened. Alright, your turn. What is your biggest accomplishment?

Elijah: I'm not sure. Let me think for a moment. *stares up at the ceiling* I guess becoming an angel could be a big accomplishment, considering all the things I did leading up to the whole turn my life around bit. I didn't have many good years before dying either. But I guess, what I would call my biggest accomplishment is holding on to myself. Despite what some people think, I still am true to who I am and how I was made. That means a lot to me and I'm glad I can still be myself for the most part even in the afterlife. Okay, so now we do the last question. How about we both answer this one?

Noah: Sure. What is the question?

Elijah: What is your biggest regret?

Noah: Now, that is a hard one. There are so many potential regrets. Guess it's my turn to think for a minute. What about you?

Elijah: Well, depends. Do we want it to be from the afterlife or back when I was alive?

Noah: How about one from each? And I'll keep thinking of one for my answer.

Elijah: Okay. Umm... I guess the one from my earlier life would have to be the thing we talked about on that other blog post. I did some stupid things because I assumed I was screwed either way so might as well enjoy myself and I put too much trust into strangers just to get that little bit of physical enjoyment. As for afterlife, that is a bit harder. We aren't supposed to do many of the things that I would normally regret. In some ways I regret not taking more chances and at least enjoying this second chance I've been given because boredom is not a friend to me.

Noah: Yeah, with boredom I get jumpy and start messing with lights if I'm alone. I guess it's my turn. My biggest regret is trying to shield myself too much and not going out before. I used my friend as an excuse to stay at home and avoid people. As much as I care about Dominic, I shouldn't have used his mutation as an excuse to be hidden, avoiding contact with others.

Elijah: That works. Well, nice chatting with you for another post. Good luck with your story.

Noah: Yeah, same with you. Maybe Dawn will get to our novels soon.

Dawn: I saw that! And yes, I'll be getting to both of your novels in July. Thanks for writing the post for this blogfest.

:-D

It is in the Muse-ic Blogfest

Oops. So, my entry is late. I completely forgot with everything going on that I signed up for this blogfest. I even did writing that night, just not to music. My bad.

Blogfest is hosted by Aleatoire over at blog link. Make sure to check out the link to see the other blogs that took part in the blogfest.

The basic idea of this blogfest is to write while listening to a single song, then post the scene along with what song it was that inspired it. Simple enough for people who don't forget.

I had a hard time picking a song and what to write, so this entry took me awhile. Finally, I picked Dirty Little Secret by All American Reject. The scene comes from the YA book I started writing in March. Though it's from Wyck's point of view, it might change when I put it in the actual story. I won't write the whole scene cause it would be way too long anyways. So, here is part of a scene for the book currently titled, Lighting the Wall.

My entry:

Following the rest of the class, Wyck slowly entered the book floor of the main building. The Governess called it the Library Wing, because of all the books, but it didn't compare much to the libraries that were mentioned in history and architecture books. Still, some books were better than none. While the other students in the Last Class grumbled about the book report assignment, Wyck looked at the walls of literature with excitement. It was his favorite assignment.

After a few minutes, he picked a wall of books that he hadn't visited much in the last year, slowly gazing over the books before his feet carried him closer. It took a few minutes of respected gazing before he let a hand move up to the middle shelf to graze the bindings of the slowly deteriorating books.

But he didn't pick a book right away off the shelf, like he used to do, because this time there was a different distraction. Curiosity snagged his attention and he gave in to the desire to check on the new boy, Sage. He wondered if Sage has ever seen a collection of books like what their village has. Or maybe he has seen bigger, maybe even a full building of books. Finally, Wyck looked over to Sage, who was by himself a few shelves down, standing in front of a stack of books. They were both alone since most of the books the others deemed as fun enough were located in a different room, so Wyck didn't feel bad staring as his attention went unnoticed.

At first, he thought Sage was feeling the books like he had but when his hands didn't move from the wall of books, he started to wonder. He looked a bit weird; his hands pressed to the wall, head leaning forward almost close enough for his shaggy hair to touch the edge of a shelf, and he wasn't moving.

Unable to think about any of the books near him, Wyck concentrated on Sage's hands. What could he be doing? The only thing behind the bookshelf was a dense wall, designed to keep those inside the building safe. Most of the buildings were strong, but the Main Building had a particularly tough exterior, and the wall behind where they stood was even thicker than usual because it was one of the few walls that touched a border. Course, not many remembered that and Wyck only knew because his father talked about the border constantly since he was the leader of the Border Patrol.

Then the though occurred to him. Could it be? It seemed impossible but as his eyes remained focus on the strange boy's hands, air rippled for a second, even causing the books that the hands rested on seemed to fluctuate for a brief second.

Wyck's eyes widened. Blinking, he couldn't believe what he had just seen. While not many would have seen anything different, and most wouldn't believe even if that had managed to catch the slight display, he knew what he saw. Sage manipulated the border. No one in the village had been able to do that since his father was a young boy. To have a new, young wall lighter would be a huge deal. It was even bigger than the new family's arrival. As soon as the Governess found out Sage's secret there would be all kinds of things that would change and Sage would have a permanent position in the village lighting the wall.

His excitement was short lived, however. The lessons from earlier classes and his own father came back to him about wall lighters. They never had time to do anything outside of work because the walls were flawed and required constant maintenance. In fact, the reason they died out in the first place was because they rarely lived past age 30 and never had time to find a mate, let alone procreate. If discovered, Sage would be used until he slowly perished from being overworked.

As Wyck continued to stare, his mind deep in thought, Sage looked up at him. His bright green eyes shown even harsher against the paleness that had taken over the tone of his face. He looked tired and yet wired at the same time. His gaze caught Wyck's and he immediately looked scared. His body slouched forward suddenly, causing his hands to grip the edge of the shelf.

Just then, the Governess walked out of the room where the other students must have been looking for books. She glanced down the hallway at them and started her usual slow, fake-smiling approach their way.

Wyck stepped closer to Sage and waiting until the Governess was close enough to hear him before acting. He stretched up, picking a book on plants off the shelf and offered it to Sage. "Here. I think you'll like this one."

"Thanks." Sage said, his voice quiet and a little raspy.

......


The song:

WorldBuilding Wednesday with Not Human Characters

(image link: shirt.woot.com)

Almost Human

While many genres have only humans in them, there are some that do not. In fact, the main characters in genres such as fantasy aren't always human even though they can have human like qualities. But one problem that surfaces when writing stories with any kind of non-human is finding the right term to call them. A few questions come to mind at once?

What do others call the characters? (humans and other non-humans)
What do the characters call themselves?
Do you, the author, make up a species?
Or, do you use species already known in fiction.

Examples of common used non-humans are: elves, mermaids, faeries, vampires, zombies, demons, angels, aliens, dwarves, trolls, gremlins, werewolves, etc.


In the epic fantasy novel I'm writing, the species names were easy. Two of the main characters are elves, from different locations and a slightly different kind, and then there is a dwarf. I don't have to worry too much about making up something because it's acceptable for different authors to use those species in novels. Sure, they still have to make them as their own and character development is important, but they can still be called elves.

The world I'm trying to build for a fantasy novel, the one that this blog series was originally set up for, is one I haven't figured out names for yet either. The one character is human but the other is a type of elemental fae. Right now I am comfortable with wood fae or wood faerie but we'll see as I develop the world for the story.

Demon/Angel was also easy because there are humans, demons and angels. Pretty straightforward.

However, I have had trouble in different sci-fi/fantasy type series. With both series, I have a question going on right now whether or not I should call the not quite human characters. The problem some have seen is the fact that with how it is now, the stories instantly remind readers of X-Men because the characters are called mutants.

So, I have been considering whether or not I should change the term from "mutant" to something else. I did come up with something I could use but I also decided that I wouldn't make any changes right now. When I'm submitting it seems like an issue or if I'm asked to find a different term than "mutant" I will be ready. For now, Noah, Ephram, Dominic, and all the others are going to be called mutants.


Do you have non-human characters?
Are they main characters?
Do you create species names for non-humans or use ones already created?

Why Do I Write YA?

Check out the other blogfest entries at IggiandGabi.com

This is a very good question and I'm interested to see the other entries in this blogfest. Young Adult has become quite the book section in bookstores. Things have changed a bit since I was reading YA books, which was like junior high but still. Thanks to great authors there have always been good books to read. While I didn't read much of the age range when I was in high school, I still appreciated and still do the authors and books that are and were available. But why did I start writing books that are for young adults? Probably not for the reasons people expect.

Honestly... I didn't plan to become a young adult writer. The last favorite genre I had before college was adult epic fantasy and my initial novel ideas were all adult, being a morph from historical fiction to epic fantasy and such.  And the first year I made it to 50k for NaNoWriMo and came out with a finished 1st draft, it was a romance/erotica story. Doesn't sound very YA does it?

Yet, here I am with my first novel that is going to be ready for submission is YA (and borderline close to MG). It's a series and I have one other YA book started and several other ideas waiting to be written. The idea for Tattle Tell came to me in a dream, though the idea is for book 2, and I started writing book 1 in 2007. It has taken me a long time but I'm almost done with the rewrite, then comes the edit and beta readers. Why make it YA? The characters just happened to come to me as teenagers. I have an adult mutant series as well, with the main character being in his mid-20's.

The main reason I write YA is because those are the ideas that come to me. The other part of why I enjoy writing YA and have no problem with the change is because even my YA books have gay main characters and I know that glbt teens are wanting more books with characters they can relate to since I used to volunteer with glbt teens. I hope that I can provide more books and get them published so they have more to read.

So, these are the reasons why I write YA.


Do you write YA?
Why or why not?

June Goals

First: May results.
- Tattle Tell rewrite. Almost but not quite. The new chapter slowed me down too.
- First draft of Lighting the Wall... Fail. Didn't really work on it.
- Finish reading at least 5 books. Well, I finished 2 books according to Goodreads.
- Blog more here... Fail. Didn't blog much.

(image link)

1. Edit the YA(maybe) mutant book Tattle Tell.

2. Finish reading 3 books at least. (I have read 16 so far out of my goal of 35 books for the year.)

3. Rewrite/Edit adult mutant novel Standing Ground.

4. Continue writing the YA book Lighting the Wall.

5. Also continue writing Angel/Demon and maybe add to Thomas/Kyle novella.


What are your goals for June?