Major Revisions

Now that I have two readers who have finished Silent Symphony, I have began my third major revision.  This first pass is a content revision in which, surprisingly enough, I am adding additional description in certain key areas.  My husband indicated there were several patches where the vague description actually jarred him out of the story and thus made it difficult for him to focus on the story.  I find this humorous because usually I am rather verbose in the descriptive areas and am forced to cut back, but now I am actually needing additional clarification.

I am also critically analyzing my magic system for flaws and consistency errors with Lullaby Trials.  A primary issue at the moment is the evolution of the main characters understanding of the void.  In the beginning, very little information is known and as a result, a great deal of irrelevant lore exists.  As the story progresses, various nuances unfold indicating the true complexity of the void, but it is in these nuances that I may have unintentionally contradicted myself.

Thankfully, it has been a while since I last read Silent Symphony, so now I am effectively reading it from scratch again.  I am hoping to be "done" with the content revision quickly and with any luck will get the grammatical and spelling mark-ups pretty soon.  On the plus side, one of my readers has been struggling with edits because she is getting too wrapped up in the story itself.  Personally, I am tickled pink this problem even exists.  Happy reading!!

Eliciting Emotion

My husband finished Silent Symphony last week. He is usually a very detached person when it comes to book characters. He never forms an emotional attachment unless the character is an animal. For example, he cried and got very angry when Hopper, the wolf in the Wheel of Time series, died, but wouldn't give a toss when Dumbledor died. He just isn't that type of reader.

Nevertheless, while reading my book, he said "I know I am an emotional basket case because I keep wanting to cry whenever I read your book." I replied "Or I could be a good writer capable of eliciting emotions in my audience." He replied, "no, I'm just emotionally messed up at the moment." Aside from the fact he managed to revoke his own man-card and insult me at the same time, I have it on good authority that he is wrong. When I handed the first chapter to my mom to read, she cried hysterically before she finished the first paragraph. Three other readers have told me similar instances and I must confess, I am giddy with the prospect of affecting my audience so drastically.

One family member said, "usually when I read, I read the descriptions of a scene and never really get a visual, but with your book, I can actually see Ali sitting on the wall with the wind wiping her hair against her back like a banner. I have never had that happen to me before."  I know I am still a novice writer, but hearing stories like this about my book fill me with great pride and give me hope for my publishing future. If you have read any part of my story and experienced something similar, please let me know. Hope to hear from you! :D

Melancholy

Today is a day of melancholy contentment. I am sprawled out on a cot near the window staring out into the boring day waiting for family to come back from shopping. Normally, I would be playing a game or reading a book, but today, I am a cat staring out at the world I want nothing to do with.

1 Reader And Counting

I am super excited; finally 1 person has finished Silent Symphony! Granted, it was my husband and I threatened serious bodily injury of he didn't read it, but let's not get hung up on the details. And to be fair, several friends and family have started out, but unfortunately many are super busy with life and such nonsense.

So this is a special thanks to all my beloved readers thus far. I will also have this list in the front of my book as well.

To my friends: Cristina, Dya, Andrea, Kevin, and Zerline, thank you so much for taking the time to give it a try. I hope you enjoy and are engaged throughout.

To my family: Lissa, Rose, Matt, Dee, and Mommy, I hope my story lives up to your wildest expectations while maintaining some assemblance of sanity. Just remember, this is far from my wildest tale told...and I did NOT steal cookies from the cookie jar... *shifty eyes*

And finally, to my darling husband: when this story began, I had nothing in particular in mind. I simply wanted to expand upon my storytelling. But now that it is finished and I see the beginnings of these relationships, I am reminded of how much I love you and of all the tiny things that have made our 7+ years together wonderful. I love you and hope you enjoyed my trip down the literary rabbit hole.

Moms are Awesome

Moms are Awesome for so many reasons, but here is my reason today.

When I was in first grade, my daycare played The Newsies frequently and as a result, and I am not kidding, I developed a New York accent. Sadly, I am from California and here professionals call that a speech impediment. My mom took me to speech therapy classes where I met my childhood bestfriend, Nicole.

In the fifth grade, I had shingles, ring-worm, and strep throat simultaneously. I was quarantined for 21 days. My mom stayed home and ensured I got all my homework done...in the process discovering I was illiterate and suspected I was dyslexic. Add that to the "cage-sour" and ADHD and I am legitimately shocked to be alive right now.

But despite the headaches, my mom never gave up on me. She figured out how to pay for me to go to Sylvan Learning Center, where a team of awesome albeit expensive tutors helped me go from a 2nd grade reading level to a 12+ level in about 3 months. Sadly, spelling and grammar are still dodgy at best.

Nevertheless, I went on to high school and AP English where my papers routinely "bleed" and the most common tragedy was the comma. But I passed the test with a 4 and went to college to become an environmental civil engineer. I took a Science Fiction/Fantasy class my fourth year where my final project was to write a short story. Mine was 20 pages long and only needed to be 5.

I graduated Magna Cum Laude with honors and a BS in civil engineering. I have since started working with an environmental consulting engineering firm and in about 4 months, I wrote a 143,000 word book. My husband's words were, and I quote, "you're a wordy little bastard, aren't you?" referencing DBZ Abridged season 1.

The gist...none of this would have been possible if not for an amazingly supportive and annoyingly persistent mom who put her entire single-mom life on hold to raise me, guide me, nurture me, and kick me in the ass occasionally. So for all you mothers out there, first, a toast to being epically mom, and second, keep up the hard work, even when you would rather curl up and cry. Your children will benefit from it and their futures will be brighter for it.