RFW Fanfiction

Yep, it's time I joined a blog hop again, and no better way to start then one with people I know. I've been asked about joining the Romantic Friday Writer's blog hop for a while now but would either forget or not come up with a story for the month prompt, but this month, I'm going to give it a try.


February is a Fanfiction challenge.

"For February's Challenge, your hosts invite authors to write up to 1000 words of fanfiction involving your favorite romance couple from TV, movie, literature or historical accounts."

 Romantic Friday Writers Link

While the general idea of the challenge is known lovers, it's a little harder to find m/m known couples unless doing the slash fanfiction that creates the idea of "what if" the character was gay instead of straight. So, I'm still doing fanfiction but going with a less known item.


My fanfiction comes from the source of an anime, one that even the people I know who go to anime conventions on a regular basis don't know about but I found as one of the coolest ones I've seen so far. That anime/manga (it was manga then an anime) is:

Monochrome Factor

The Manga link:
http://mangafox.me/manga/monochrome_factor/
The Anime link:
http://www.anime-planet.com/anime/monochrome-factor

Quick Explanation:
I've never read the manga, so am just going off the anime series that I watched a few times online. The basics of the story can be found on the sites listed and my fanfiction attempt takes place after the series ended. Once the Shadow King had retreated, Shirogane has returned with no idea whether he will survive in the shadow world, and Akira is back to a normal life with his friends and less demon fighting. The manga is a bit different story wise, with some different characters shown and didn't have the m/m aspect, which is another reason I went with the anime. In my attempt, Akira has been trying to leave the life of a normal, older teenager, closely to adulthood, and that includes dating, but he has found the whole endeavor boring.


My Fanfiction, Dating in Monochrome

Akira stared out across the water, watching the calm surface lap against the rocky edge. It had become his spot over the years; a place to be alone and contemplate his life. Even Kengo knew not to bother him there, which almost made up for all the times he hung around whether he was wanted or not. While Akira fumed at times over his persistent friend, deep down he appreciated that persistence, that his friend would have his back no matter what happened. With Kengo and Aya, deep down it almost made up for his loss, for his family never coming back to him.

"It's so calm and peaceful out here." The boy named Yokai interrupted the silence as he sat on the rock next to Akira.

Looking at the boy, Akira simply nodded. He still didn't know what to do. He'd been trying to date and have a normal life after the struggles he had endured fighting the Shadow King, but while having some boring days had felt great at first, things had gotten dull again. He had even tried dating, going out with a number of different girls but they had all brought nothing to him but lack of interest. But he didn't see why the last one had insisted he try dating a guy. Yet there he was, out on a date with Yokai, a new student to the school.

While nothing bad had happened on the date, it didn't feel any different really, he had found himself doing something he never would have planned. Instead of saying goodbye after the quick dinner, he had asked Yokai to join him near the water. But the boy reminded him of something, a feeling from someone he'd experienced before.

The last time he'd shared the spot near the water, it had been with Shirogane. Though he hadn't decided to share it, more the shadow wouldn't leave him alone. During those days he'd felt annoyed by Shirogane's shadowing of him and never leaving his side. He'd lashed out a number of times, fighting back against the man's claims of liking him but in the end, when he returned to the shadow world, Akira regretted never trying to say that he liked him in return. Part of him had wanted to, but he could never admit the words. Losing yet another had taken its toll and he still struggled to deal with the doubt and confusion.

A hand touching his own drew him back to the present. He looked over to see Yokai sitting closer with one of his hands resting on his shoulder and the other the one that had interrupted his train of thought.

Yokai moved back again. "Sorry. You looked sad so I thought..."

"It's okay. Maybe we should head back." Akira tried to shrug it off, feeling a strange buzz flicker across his hand.

They started walking, not saying anything for most of it. Not many people were out, it had already started to get late so that the lesser amount of light lead to the streetlights trying to illuminate small sections of the sidewalk even though daylight still made it easy enough to see. The park felt empty, trees moving to the slight wind.

"Want to see my spot? Since you shared me yours."

Akira stopped. "You have a spot already?"

"The spot isn't as great as yours, but yeah, I have a place I go to in order to get away and be alone." Yokai smiled at him. "It's nearby."

"Sure." Akira followed as the boy took him away from the path, walking through the bushes and trees, going through the park to the other side. Then they stopped and he watched him sit down on the ground near a group of short bushes. He sat down, not sure what else to do and waited.

Nothing happened at first, they both sat on the ground staring out across the park. However, when Akira was about to push up from the ground and suggest they end the night, Yokai surprised him. The boy pushed him to the ground.

Normally he would have fought back at once, Akira stared at the boy instead. "What?"

"Shh.. Stay here and do me a favor, don't look up until I tell you to, okay?" Yokai pushed away, moving across to the next open section of grass.

Despite the instruction, Akira looked up, annoyed at the strange situation until he saw something he hadn't expected to happen that night. A small group of kokuchi, shadow demons, approached the boy, who had seemed so defenseless against the other boys just the day before. He wanted to get up and fight but the sight of the blades that appeared in Yokai's hands stopped him.

Stunned, he watched the boy move with ease, taking out the shadows in quick, skilled motions. After they were destroyed, he approached. "Wow."

Yokai paled, looking around, his hands now empty. "That probably looked strange. It's hard to explain."

"I know what you were doing. I've fought kokuchi before."

"You could see them?"

"I can do more than see." Akira didn't know why he moved so close to the boy, but found himself leaning in and pressing his lips against his surprised date's for a second before making his offer. "Next time, you have to let me fight too."

The How

How am I going to make it to my goals? This is the post to discuss some of the things I will do in the near future. Some will be easier than others and some will be in the not so near future,  but these are my plans in order to reach my goals.

Some goals will be easier to achieve than others, and some rely upon gaining certain resources, but it's good to have a plan for achieving them all.

Fiction Writing: the how

This is an easier one in a way. Sure, it takes doing the work but all I have to do is the work in order to reach most of my goals at this point when it comes to the writing. And in order for that to happen, I need to plan time for the tasks it takes to reach those goals.

Editing - I have discovered that I can get editing done pretty well on days I work, which surprised me. I would think I'd be more productive on my days off, but a good part of the editing lately has been the hour or two right before work. So that time will be my editing time each day I work and sometimes I'll find time on my days not working.

Writing - along with editing, the writing will help if I stick to the monthly goals, picking which projects to work on each month and setting deadlines. I get more done if I have a deadline and since the write in December-January-February challenge is almost done, I'll have one less writing obligation and can refocus on the novels. For February my main focus right now is the novella, C9.March I want to work on C9 and maybe finish AF, and work on hmmm LtW.  Since in nanowrimo I was doing 5,000 words a day, I think I should do at least 5,000 words of new writing a week. Sounds reasonable and less crazy. ;-)

Birthday Goal - that one is reliant on accomplishing my editing goals. I'm on chapter 7 of 25 and have until end of August to edit, take a break and maybe fix if I find more. Going to be close on this goal unless I pick up the editing pace.


Fitness: the how

Now for the big one. What will I do to reach my fitness goals. Again, some are easier and will take less time than others. Some require more planning and financial influences as well as determination. But this is my current plan on how to reach them.

1. This just requires I find a location that allows for shooting bows that would have recurve bows and be able to pay whatever fee. However, I also plan to do resistance training to help strengthen my arms, even more than just lifting heavy things at work. I know that after a little while, it can be tiring shooting a bow. Last time me and my sister did it for like an hour and our arms were very sore the next day.

2. Again, requires access to the equipment and not only strength building, but also hand-eye coordination skills practiced a bit more. Mine aren't too bad but it's a far cry from when I was active in sports. Will incorporate some challenges, training for the coordination along with the resistance training.

3. Same issue as 2. Need location, weapon, teacher, and ability to handle it without wanting to drop the sword after three moves. Also need to be able to move quick, be faster on my feet, which should come with cardio and less weight to carry around.

4. Sensing a theme here. Need to do research, find a method and place to learn that form of hand to hand combat. Also need strength and endurance, so cardio and resistance, along with weight loss to reach this goal.

5. Easy enough. I'm sure I can find a place to ride horses again. But want to weigh less before I do that. Hoping to lose around 4 lbs a month with eating and exercise.

6. Cardio.

So the how is pretty generic. Seems the main stream throughout is I need to lose weight, do cardio and resistance training first. What am I going to do for that?  I would love a gym membership. This might surprise some as I actually enjoyed and miss lifting weights, like I had to back in high school and once in a college class. A gym is a great place, however, I can't afford it currently. So, that will have to wait. I have right now, workout dvds, a small "gym" that's smaller than my bedroom here at my apartment complex, and am looking for resistance bands on clearance or at least on sale.  I've been improving my eating habits and am trying to eat like the more fit person I want to become. Sure, I mess up on occasion (Easter candy is in stores now and they have cheesy garlic bread potato chips in small bags now), but I'm doing far better than my one meal, taco bell days.I am mostly eating chicken and veggies, but got some oats to make oatmeal with and have other plans in the future.


Next blog post will be a fiction entry for a romance writing blog hop, but then I will explain the Eating Like the Fit Person I Want to Become concept. Until then,


What are your goals?
Do you make plans in order to reach them?

Fiction and Fitness goals

I have a number of goals and am a big fan of making goals public not only on a year basis but often monthly so that I have more than the characters in my head to hold me accountable.

I post my novel goals on this blog almost every month and once a year, or sometimes twice when I know I need to adjust my goals and it's helpful.

My "fiction writing" goals:
Edit TT and SG, send to test readers, prepare for submission
Finish first draft of AF, OiEM, LtW and/or AD, TK, GaD
Try not to start new novel at least until November if at all. - Failed already, lol. I started a novella.
Be close to submitting by my birthday (end of August)

The basic aspect of my goal for writing is just to write. I could say my goal is to be published but even if that doesn't happen, I'm going to keep writing. I want to get at least 10 percent of the stories in my head out. I say 10 percent because as I get some done more appear. If I can get at least a little of them down it will be a great accomplishment.

I am making slow progress and plan to continue that while finding time also to get out of the chair, not spending hours on end.


Fitness for the Fantasy/Sci-Fi Writer

Yep, I want my fitness to relate to my writing and I'm sure some of you are wondering how that is possible. The basics of it is this: I want to be able to do some of the things my characters can do. Sure I can't use magic to block attacks or control electricity, I'm not that crazy, I promise. But there are things that the character do in the stories that I'd like to have hands on experience with in order to write them better. I have used a bow and arrow, so that is easier for me to write, for example. So,  few things I'd like to be able to do involve weaponry.

I have a couple of recent posts about some of my fiction goals but since this is a post for both I will repost some of the goals from the fiction side before I get into the health/fitness ones.

My "fiction fitness" goals:
1. shoot a bow again (it has been years, I prefer recurve bows instead of compound)
2. learn how to handle a staff
3. learn to use a sword (not broadsword, I'm only 4'11.5 after all, so maybe a hobbit or elf sword as I think of elves as small, not large beings)
4. have light knowledge of hand to hand combat, sparring and such, and by knowledge I mean be able to do it myself and know what it feels like doing such.
5. ride a horse (I don't use that often in stories but it is fun and might come in handy and I have in the past but something I'd like to try when not as overweight)
6. walk a long distance and will come up with an exact "fantasy" amount in the near future (yeah... i do that cause I'm not sure what to do to transport characters at times)


My "other health" goals:
This is for the more typical health goals. I do have both long term and short term goals for this because both are important.

I do have weight goals. This is what many focus on and while it's a way to track, it's not the only way so it's only going to be a part of this, a not large part, I hope, but still important. But to understand those goals, I must first explain where I'm starting from on this part of the journey. At my largest that I can think of I have weighed 230, though most of the time I go between 205-217 when I'm not trying really to lose weight. I started 2013 once at got my scale at 216 and in beginning of 2012 I was 217. At the lowest that I kept track was on Weight Watchers, when I got down to 179 but between college, money and such, didn't keep to that. I'm down to 211 right now, working on my February goal of losing 4 lbs.

My first short term goal, then, is to get under 200 lbs again. It's a little less than 10% loss, which is the second mini milestone, to have lost 21 lbs from the initial 216, which would be 195.

My big scale number goal right now is 160. Technically for my height and as a female, most indexes and "diet" organizations, (bmi, ww, jenny craig, etc) recommend a weight of about 123. I just can't see that at this stage, and I have other plans that require a healthy weight gain (pregnancy) in the not extremely long distant future, so I am not going to set my goals to that. Sure, I'll be "overweight" at the 160, but it's a good major point and I can always re-evaluate when I get and stay there. Plus it would be nice to be "overweight" instead of "obese".

I also have a little scale that shows body fat percentage. While it might not be the most accurate, it would be nice to see that number go down. It's saying 54.9 percent right now, so my first goal is to get it under 50%. I'd like the final one to be closer to a healthy body fat percentage, but right now I'll do it with 50% then 45, then 40.

Finally, clothing. First goal is women's size 18. I'd like to one day fit in a size 12-14 (as sizes vary). Sure, I'll still have to hem all my pants but would be nice to not be in the plus sizes and be able to shop at more stores.


The How

That is for the next post because it's important to have a plan in order to reach goals. However, I don't want to make these too long and I can easily ramble on for a long time. Until then, I hope people enjoy the new blog focus.

New Name, Slight Change

As some may have noticed, the title of this blog has changed along with the link. This used to be It's In The Book, located at itsinthbookde.blogspot.com. However, the time came for a change. I'm still writing and hope to be ready to submit in search of an agent this year. I still will blog about my writing here, and general writing topics over at dawnembers.blogspot.com and am trying to get to a regular blogging schedule. This change is for the good, to give me a good place to focus my energy and stay motivated in my goals for the year, along with life.


Some might think it's a strange or bad move to put two different focuses on the same blog, since they say a blog should focus on one topic only. I disagree because the two topics have a connection and in a way this is the closest thing to a diary I will ever have since I don't like writing about myself most of the time. I have to break that here, but it's a challenge, and I'm going to accept that fact. Now instead of rambling, I should actually get to the explanation.

Image links:

fiction image

ampersand image

fitness image

The blog is now: Fiction & Fitness

There are a few reasons behind this change that require me to give some personal information about myself. As I discussed on an April post for the A to Z challenge once, I am short. I don't know the conversion to my height, but for where I live, I'm 4 feet, 11.5 inches. So, almost 5 feet tall but never quite made it. I am female, if my pen name doesn't give that away and like many people I am overweight. (Now it sounds like one of those anonymous support groups...) While writing is great, it's not the most active venture. I can spend hours just sitting on the computer writing or pretending I'm writing. I'm not the most active and certainly not in shape, and despite the years of sports as a kid/pre-teen/teen, have never been in shape or fit. So, I decided time for a change.

I struggled to come up with a title for this blog because I wanted to combine my focus on writing and my focus on getting healthier into the same place. I could have started a blog for just health but I have too many blogs already and think this combination will work out in its own way. When it comes down to it, the real issue is what I am going to make priorities in my life and I want both. I want to both write novels and have a healthy life.

The name came after quite a struggle. I considered things like writing to a healthy life and what not but each one I thought of made it sound like I was writing books about health. To clarify, no I'm not writing a health book. A search through the dictionary showed "fitness" as a synonym to the word "health". I thought about it and liked the idea of Fiction and Fitness. I hope that this doesn't confuse anyone and it showcases that this blog is about my writing fiction and my journey to a fit life. That is my intentions in the end.

That is why this blog has the new name and focus. Next I will post about my goals in a couple of days, some things I want to accomplish, how to accomplish them, and I might even consider posting pictures. Have to wait to find out.

February Insecure Writering Post

Hello there. For anyone that does find this post, you might come upon a slight surprise if you have visited my blog before. Yes, my blog is in the middle of a revamp and I have done something big. I have changed the name and the link for the blog. It's In The Book DE blog is no longer.

Welcome to Fiction & Fitness

I will do a more official post explaining the change, but today is the day for Insecure Writer's Support Group and that is what my post is about. I have all kinds of insecurities when it comes to writing and health, so time to put one up for the month.

Normally I do link the whole set of people taking part in the post but that takes up a lot of space. So, instead here is the link to the page that has the listing of blogs taking part in this. Go check them out too.
 Link: Insecure Writer's Support Group

Now to my actual topic. Last month I was insecure about not finishing anything. My progress editing is still slow but I am making progress. So, now for something else. I'm going to revisit a topic I have blogged about before but not sure if it was with IWSG.

SNI Syndrome - aka Shiny New Idea Syndrome

Now this doesn't sound like an issue for insecurity minus the adding of the word syndrome to the cute title, but for me, it's a big issue that I struggle to overcome all the time. I have way too many ideas and they all sound so nice and great. (Okay this is similar to the I can't finish anything post after all.) And even now, I have a new novella that I'm attempting to slowly write even though I have 4 finished first drafts, 2 novels I'm editing and like 5 novels I need to finish first drafts on. Why is the shy new idea so hard to pass by without writing a little bit of it?

I am easily distracted, if you didn't notice already, and so it's a struggle to focus on anything for a long period of time, or to focus on just one story in general. I can barely focus on one novel during November and manage more because I'm doing intense word counts (last year being the craziest so far). But most of the year I hop for novel to novel and work on them in spurts while adding mini scenes and stories written on the sidelines.

What makes me put this with the insecure post is the connection in part to the struggle to finish but it's really a question of whether it's just my method or if it's a hindering factor in my journey. Does getting distracted often hurt my goal? Or am I just a distracted writer who will work on 20 projects and take longer to finish them? I'm not sure yet.


Do you get easily distracted?
SNI or just a great way to get several things done at a slower pace?