Thursday, July 30, 2015

I Has Done It!!!!

I have done it. Wow. I have reached and passed 50 000 words, finishing at 50 100 words. But that didn't mean that the story is done. Now, I will focus on rewriting "By Diadem's Light" - and maybe find a different title so that the title may go from "Chapel P.I.: By Diadem's Light" to something starting with "Chapel P.I. and..."

I'm so thrilled to have finished my manuscript!

Sunday, July 26, 2015

Just a Quick Word-Count Update

"Maybe I think too much for my own good."
~ Paul Simon
 
Current Word Count: 37 120
Word Count I Should Have Today: 41 935
How Many Words I have Until I'm Done: 12 880
 
I can so totally do this!

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Proverbs 11:19

"As righteousness leads to life,
So he who persues evil pursues it to his own death."
~ Proverbs 11:19, NKJV
 
I was doing a Bible study with my brother and mother the other day, and I was asked to read Proverbs Chapter 11. When I read this verse, it struck me as profound, because, no matter what year it is, what age it is, no matter how it's done, evilness is the same.
 
Being the geek that I am, I can think of plenty of instances where the second half of this verse, the "So he who persues evil pursues it to his own death" part, has happened in fiction.
 
The Clairvoyant, Agent Grant Ward's former-CO and Ward's own older brother ended up dying, one in the pursuit of his evil, twisted dreams and the other having his evil come back to kill him in the form of Ward, his brother, in the first and second season of the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
 
Megatron, the evil leader of the Decepticons, seemed to 'die' at the hands of the Autobot Bumblebee before he was subsequently ressurected by evil-incarnet in Transformers: Prime and Transformers: Prime - Predacons Rising.
 
General Zod in Man of Steel, ended up having to be killed by Superman/Clark Kent when he proved unwilling to turn away from his plans of mass-genocide.
 
Praetor (i.e. Emperor) Shinzon ended up dying during his battle against Picard because he hoped to (also) cause mass genocide on the Federation/human race in Star Trek: Nemesis.
 
Captain Nero of the mining ship Narada destroyed Vulcan and then tried to destroy Earth because he blamed Spock, and probably the Federation in extention, for the death of Romulus, his homeworld. He ended up dying when his ship was crushed in a black hole in Star Trek: 2009.
 
Every one of those villians died after their evil plans, seeming to echo that verse. I really want to work into one of my stories someday.
 
~ Mikaela

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Nail Polish Continents

Today, I looked at my nails and decided that they need to be redone before me and my family go camping the day after tomorrow. I still haven't painted my nails, and I probably won't until tomorrow.

But today, when I looked at my nails, what was left of the old white paint on my left middle finger instantly reminded me of a continent, and I suddenly found myself picking up my small sketch tablet so I could scribble it down, never wanting to forget it. (I'll have to take a picture of the boring outline of the continent and its island when I have the time.) This was one of the first times I had ever gained inspiration from my own person when I was examining how much nail polish I would have to remove before I could put some more on!

This little continent I've just invented will have to be stored for future reference, probably to be used in some sort of fantasy I might get to write in the future where the world it is on has scattered continents that look more like islands. I'm afraid I'll not be able to use it in this month's Camp NaNoWriMo. Ha.

Speaking of NaNoWriMo, here's my word count.

Word Count: 18 327
The Word Count I'm supposed to Have Today: 22 580 or higher

I can do this! I can ignore all distractions and plow ahead. I have another story calling my name, but I'm trying to resist its call, and my mother was filling my head with ideas of writing a novel to tie all the loose ends of The Pretender (a show my parents have gotten me hooked on that I'm nowhere near done watching) together, since the channel it was being aired on abruptly shut it down without giving the producers any chance to finish it so that they could go on to air JAG.

(Though, I can't be mad at the existence of JAG, though, because if there was no JAG, there would be no NCIS or NCIS:LA.)

There's a bunch of other things trying to pull my attention away from NaNoWriMo, but I will not let them! (lol)

~ Mikaela

Friday, July 10, 2015

It's Too Hot...

The heat of summer has finally reached north-western Alberta, but thankfully the inside of my house feels cool.

Right now, I'm trying to write while also watching Stargate SG-1. I really shouldn't be distracting myself with watching TV. Ugh...

Current Word Count: 12 769

Word Count I Should Have Today: 16 129

Saturday, July 4, 2015

A So-So Day



Such is the story of my life (thanks for the visual aid, Toothless).

I woke up this morning at 7:59, a minute before the time I had set my alarm to wake me up at. And for a while before that, I had been aware of my surroundings, even as my body slept on, meaning my brain was ready to go, ready to write, long before my body was.

And even when I managed to surface from the depths of sleep, it took me at least thirty minutes to keep my eyes from closing shut on me - thus, I didn't manage to leave my bed until almost nine in the morning. I was mad at that, but I wasn't allowed to dwell on it as I rushed to get my morning routine finished.

I searched through my closet for a light sweater, since mornings can still be a little chill here with the breeze and the almost dried-up dew on the grass (which reminds me, I really need to stop going on those walks without socks on - the grass and clover is long enough to cut at my ankles). On my walk it felt like there were lead weights tied to my arms and legs, and I ended up dragging my feet most of the way as I peered through the fog that clouded my mind. I really need to start going to bed earlier so that I can wake up earlier.

I didn't get to start writing today until it was after three in the afternoon, and thus have only written a few hundred words for my NaNoWriMo novel today. My current wordcount is 5,225, and according to my stats I need to reach 6,451 before midnight if I want to be able to finish the novel by the end of the month.

By the way, the novel is called "By Diadem's Light", and it's the first in a series of Science Fiction/Mystery novels I plan on writing. Right now, it feels like I'm rushing the story along, making the mistake of making my protagonist, Estelle Emperatriz Gael De Sauveterre (there is a reason why she has two middle names - the answer? her mother was a bit eccentric) start searching for answers to the mystery in chapter two - and chapter one wasn't very long! I my-as-well have started the mystery with the very first word of the first chapter! :P

But there are alway's rewrites!

Well, this post was meant to be a little update for whoever comes across this blog. I really should be getting back to writing.

~ Mikaela

Friday, July 3, 2015

Post Numero Uno

Well, the first post of a new blog...

The purpose of this blog is to talk about my books, review other's books and stories (I like to do that), and share things about my life, my likes and dislikes, and the recipies that I managed to create for all those Trim Healthy Mamas out there. I tend to be quite the social butterfly when I want to with those I know over the net, but I would like to just warn you that I am an INTROVERT and that means I'll be prone to "dropping off the face of the Earth" and not replying to messages until days after I get it.

Now that that's out of the way, I would like to just say welcome. Welcome to my blog. Thank you for finding it!

(and sorry! this post kind of turned into an introduction/biography of the blogger!)

I'm a inspiring writer who has participated in one November NaNoWriMo, tried to do a Camp NaNoWriMo this last April, but couldn't because I had to be rushed to the city for emergancy appendix removal - which ended up causing me to be stuck recovering all that month, and am currently participating in Camp NaNoWriMo July. :D I'm keeping up fairly well this time, thank goodness!

I'm an INFP (and sometimes a INFJ or a INTP) who lives in Canada and wishes to move to New Zealand where the Hobbits, wizards, Elves, and Dwarves live. Since the age of 12 I have written stories, becoming lost in worlds I created to the point that my mother had to, and continues to try to, pry me away from them. My genre interests in writing have slowly shifted from fantasy to science fiction, but that's only because a good fantasy book is hard to come by and I've been given a severe dose of something horrid called "reality". I'm considering writing fantasy thanks to fantastical elements like dragons and elves. Yes, Elrond, I'm coming.

My reading tastes have varied over the years, but I haven't read as much as I would have liked over the last few years. In the beginning, it was fantasies such as J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia (which my father gifted to me when I was in either grades 1, 2, or 3). I used to write about Hobbits and talking animals thanks to Tolkien and Lewis, and they still make me grin when I think about it (especially when I think about how I wrote about a girl named Jonquil who woke up on a Hobbit bed with her legs from the knee down hanging off the bed!).

This summer, after NaNoWriMo, I'm going to make myself devour books like I once did once more. I have the second book of the Realm Walkers trilogy (Two Renegade Realms by Donita K. Paul) waiting for me to read it as it sits on my shelf. Thankfully, I'm going camping the middle of this month, so I will have time to read. The Hobbit is also waiting to be read. It's almost like it 'calls' to me, whispering "Read me, Mikaela...read me! I miss you so much!" Well, I miss you too, you old book - even though I think I've read you at least seven times already.

Other books need to be read, as well, and I'm sure to visit Chapters/Indigo again in the near future. Such is the life of a writer/bookivore - lol.

Stay tuned for new updates! There are sure to be many!

~ Mikaela

Ranger's Apprentice: The Battle for Skandia, a review

The Battle for Skandia . John Flanagan. 2006. Puffin Books. Pages: 294. Price: USD $8.99/$11.99 CAN. Setting: Skandia. ISBN 0142413402. [S...